Woman accused of fatally striking Fort Worth officer had blood alcohol above legal limit
The woman accused of fatally striking a Fort Worth police sergeant while driving drunk had a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit, the crash report states.
De Aujalae Evans, 25, is currently in the Tarrant County Jail and charged with intoxicated manslaughter of a peace officer in the Aug. 12 death of Sgt. Billy Randolph. Evans had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.12 at the time of the crash, according to the report completed by investigators. The legal limit in Texas is less than .08.
Police say Evans was driving the wrong way on a southbound Interstate 35W off-ramp at Sycamore School Road when she hit Randolph. The 56-year-old sergeant was responding to an 18-wheeler crash and fire in the early hours of Aug. 12. Fellow officers rushed him to John Peter Smith Hospital, but he didn’t survive his injuries.
Evans left the scene, according to her arrest warrant affidavit. Officers pursued her for about a quarter of a mile before she got out of her car and ran toward a Motel 6.
Police caught up with Evans and arrested her in the motel parking lot. She told investigators she drank about 10 shots in the four hours before the crash, the warrant states.
Evans and her attorney, Stephen Gordon, filed a motion Aug. 22 requesting a reduction in her bail, which is set at $750,000, according to court records.
The motion called the bond amount “excessive, oppressive and beyond the financial means of Defendant” and requested a hearing to reduce Evans’ bond to “a reasonable amount.”
Evans was on probation for another charge at the time she allegedly hit Randolph, according to court documents. In April she pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in a 2023 shooting that injured her girlfriend.
Evans had been offered a plea bargain in the assault case, and the original terms of her probation included abstaining from alcohol and drugs, not committing any other crimes in Texas, submitting to regular drug tests and completing 240 hours of community service.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office filed a petition the day after Randolph’s death seeking to revoke Evans’ probation in the assault case and hold her without bond pending a hearing, according to court records. As part of the plea bargain, Evans was originally given six years of probation with deferred adjudication. Prosecutors are now asking for the case to be adjudicated and for a reassessment of Evans’ punishment.
Evans and Gordon filed a motion on Aug. 22 requesting a hearing to set bond in the assault case, court records state.
No hearings have been scheduled for the intoxicated manslaughter case or the aggravated assault case as of Thursday, according to court documents. Gordon told the Star-Telegram in a Sept. 4 email that things were busy at the courthouse and that was the reason for the delay.
