Crying Bolingbrook Woman Who Killed Husband Begs For Probation

JOLIET, IL - Before Bolingbrook husband killer Michele Evans took to the podium of Will County Courtroom 407 to beg Judge Dave Carlson to show her mercy at the second day of her sentencing hearing, the Will County State's Attorney's Office called recently retired Romeoville High School Dean Carol Forsyth to the witness stand on Tuesday afternoon. Forsyth testified how she and her husband used to socialize with Michele and David Evans. The four would visit area restaurants and wine bars. Before she fatally stabbed her husband in April 2015, Michele Evans worked for the Valley View School District. She was at Romeoville High School a number of years and then later at Bolingbrook High School, according to Tuesday's testimony.

Prosecutor Christopher Koch asked the retired Romeoville school administrator to recall her observations of David Evans, the murder victim. "Oh, he was always very pleasant to talk to," Forsyth testified. "A little bit more quiet ... I would say."

Then something happened that changed how the Romeoville High School dean saw her friend. It was a conversation inside the administrative offices. On that occasion, Michele Evans walked into her boss's office. What Evans had to say had nothing to do with school business.

It had to do with her intentions for her husband.

"This was sometime in 2015 or the end of 2014," Forsyth testified. "It was very odd. She came into my office and she said 'I'm gonna kill him' ... I said, 'You don't want to do this. You want to talk to your therapist' ... I was so taken aback by how she said it."

On Thursday night, April 16, 2015, the marriage between Michele Evans and David Evans ended inside the couple's Bolingbrook house at 501 Bloomfield Drive.

According to Michele Evans' version of events that she told Judge Carlson, she and her husband were home that night. She was in her pajamas in the living room. David Evans was in the kitchen making a pork chop. She decided that she was hungry, too, so she went into the kitchen to make herself Ramen noodles.

The couple began arguing. "He was furious," Michele Evans testified. "I was scared."

A physical altercation ensued. All of the Ramen noodles spilled on the floor.

Michele Evans maintained that her husband clutched the hot frying pan. She feared he was about to smack her. She grabbed a kitchen knife. Words were exchanged during the heat of the moment. By this point in their marriage, Michele Evans, 50, and David Evans, 55, still lived together, but Michele Evans testified she had recently moved into a separate bedroom. She had also been carrying on an adulterous affair with a man who lived elsewhere in Illinois, but the man was dangerous, possessive and lived on the edge, according to courtroom testimony. As for Evans couple, they were married for more than 20 years. They met overseas in Germany when they were stationed in the U.S. Air Force. The couple have two grown daughters who were in the Air Force and away attending college respectively at the time of their father's homicide.

"I did two quick jabs to the chest," Michele Evans testified Tuesday.

Next, Michele Evans began sobbing as she recited her recollection of David Evans falling to the kitchen floor.

"I saw blood," she cried. "I called police. I was screaming. I didn't want to hurt him. I never expected him to die."

Michele Evans testified she figured her husband, after being taken away in ambulance, simply needed to be bandaged up and would be fine. When she was taken into the Bolingbrook Police Station for questioning, she testified, she had no idea her husband ultimately died.

She made it a point to say out the loud the names of several family members and to extend to each one of them a personal apology for taking David Evans' life.

"I'm so sorry," she testified.

Michele Evans, 2015 mugshot

According to Tuesday's testimony, the first stabbing wound was mostly superficial, meaning it did not penetrate his chest. The second wound was less than 2 inches deep but it severed a major artery in her husband's heart.

"He bled out pretty quickly," explained her lawyer Joel Brodsky of Chicago, the same criminal defense lawyer who represented another convicted Bolingbrook killer, Drew Peterson.

Brodsky also explained to Judge Carlson that his client waived any life insurance policies pertaining to her husband's death.

"So nobody could ever say our client in any way profited from David's death," Brodsky argued.

After being charged with first-degree murder, Michele Evans was later able to post her $1 million bond and get her herself out of jail. However, she has remained in custody since May, after being picked up by Oswego police after reportedly having crack cocaine inside a car at a McDonald's parking lot.

She and her lawyer told the judge she has been an exemplary inmate at the Will County Adult Detention Facility over these past seven months. Judge Carlson was presented with numerous certificates that Michele Evans has received at the jail from staff for completing programs dealing with substance abuse, tutoring, literacy, drug recovery, anger and depression. She has been active in the Will County Jail's Bible church as well.

Chicago defense attorney Joel Brodsky

"Michele, since May, for seven months, has been sober and free from abuse," Brodsky told Judge Carlson. "She had to be locked up to have it happen, but it's happened."

Brodsky argued that his client deserves to put on probation, intensive probation, as a result of striking a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleading guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. Carlson can sentence her to a maximum of 20 years imprisonment, but the judge also has the latitude to put Michele Evans on probation.

Over the past two days, the Will County State's Attorney's Office was represented by Christopher Koch and Emily Morgan. Koch handled the state's arguments.

Koch argued the defense's claim that Michele Evans suffered from battered spouse's syndrome was a farce.

Koch pointed out that Michele Evans, when interviewed by the defense attorney's clinical psychology expert, acknowledged she and her husband had a fulfilling sex life throughout their marriage.

"Just because you have a rocky relationship doesn't mean you have a right to kill your husband," Koch told Judge Carlson.

"This is not a guilt or innocence stage. This is a sentencing stage ... She doesn't fit the criteria for battered woman syndrome."

Koch also reminded the judge that perhaps the most turbulent incident in the couple's marriage, prior to the murder, involved an episode when the defendant "sprayed him with bleach" during an argument.

"The one documented incident ... it's Mrs. Evans acting aggressive to Mr. Evans," the prosecutor pointed out.

Judge David Carlson

Carlson told the court he would pronounce his sentence for Michele Evans at 11 a.m. Wednesday, December 20.

Mugshots of Michele Evans via Will County Sheriff's Department, photos of Joel Brodsky and Dave Carlson via Joliet Patch