Pastor’s wife pleads guilty to asking lover to murder husband, explains why
Kristie Evans, the 48-year-old widow of David Charles Evans, who led the Harmony Freewill Baptist Church in Oklahoma before he was found dead in his home in March 2021, has pleaded guilty to asking her lover to murder him and now wants the public to know why.
The widow entered her guilty plea at Pontotoc County Courthouse last week. Her sentencing hearing is set for August.
Joi Miskel, the attorney for the widow, told NBC News that Evans, who is now facing a potential life sentence, “understands there has to be accountability for her actions, and she’s prepared to serve whatever sentence is handed down.”
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“At the same time, she wants the court and the public to know the reasons behind her actions,” Miskel said, adding that her client “at least now has some control and say so in her life that she didn’t have before — as twisted as that may sound.”
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that just after 1 a.m. on March 22, 2021, officers from the Ada Police Department responded to a 911 call in the 1400 block of Northcrest in Ada. They found the 50-year-old David Evans severely wounded. Paramedics would later pronounce him dead at the scene. His wife was also in the home.
It was later alleged in court documents that David Evans was a swinger and his widow confessed to plotting his murder with a man she spent three nights with while he was in Mexico on a mission trip. The man charged with the shooting was identified as 26-year-old Kahlil Deamie Square. A lawyer for Square said that his client is pleading not guilty to the murder charge, according to NBC News.
Kristie Evans told investigators that she and her husband led a secret life as swingers and met Square for sex at a Super 8 motel "on more than one occasion" months before her husband was killed.
"On one of those occasions, Kristie secretly dropped her phone number on the floor for Kahlil," an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent reported in arresting documents obtained by The Oklahoman. "Kristie continued to communicate by phone daily with Kahlil without David's knowledge."
She reportedly asked him to kill her husband and even provided him with a gun and bullets. She also allegedly left the back door of their home open on the night of his murder.
In a recent interview with NBC News from jail, Kristie Evans alleged that her husband abused her for years and was the one that pressured her to have sex with other men.
Private Facebook messages spanning four years between the late pastor and his wife reviewed by NBC News showed the pastor pushing his wife to engage in sex acts with other men.
At one point, the pastor reportedly accused his wife of being a “frigid b***h” for not having sex with other swinger couples. Christie Evans painted her late husband as financially controlling and physically abusive in ways that didn’t leave any marks, according to NBC News.
She claimed that they were planning for a divorce and that one month before her husband was killed, he held a gun to his chin as she spoke with their daughter over the phone. The widow contends the action was a tactic to control how she discussed their separation.
Shortly after the murder of the pastor last year, Harmony Freewill Baptist Church’s Executive Director Mike Wade told KXII that David Evans, who left behind three adult children, was a driven pastor who would do anything he could for his ministry and the church.
“He was always a very outgoing guy,” Wade said. “He always had a smile on his face, always looking out for the needs of others.”
The church did not immediately respond when contacted by The Christian Post for comment on the case on Wednesday.
While some relatives say they were aware of some of the abuse Christie Evans was facing, the pastor’s mother told NBC News that "she could have gone to a new city or a battered women’s shelter.”
