Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Abuse suspect battled mental illness
Man charged in pit bull killing spiraled into chaos, friends say
OAKTON, Va. — As a child growing up in Virginia, Brendan Evans was a gifted student, both quiet and athletic. He lived in a million-dollar home in a picturesque town outside Washington, D.C. He loved the family’s dog and three cats.
Although he was something of a loner, no one, it seems, thought Evans was capable of the horrors ascribed to him now.
Today, Evans, 31, sits in the Broward County Jail, accused of stabbing a pit bull named Ollie more than 50 times and leaving the dog to die in a suitcase on a street in Hollywood.
When police searched his home, they found mutilated animals in the freezer and knives covered with dried blood, a police report says.
They also found notes that made reference to demons, including one that stated: “Make the entire pit bull investigation go away. Return all curses placed on Brendan to their sender. Give Brendan peace of mind.”
The ghastly discovery, spread on social media, appalled animal lovers nationwide. Few knew the untold story — that Evans had plunged from an ordinary, comfortable childhood into years of drug use, sporadic crime and severe mental illness, according to friends, acquaintances and his attorney.
“Brendan’s psychiatric disease is a heavy burden that he and his family have privately suffered for over a decade,” said Sarah Anne Mourer, his Boca Raton attorney.
Evans’ plight would have seemed unfathomable during his boyhood in Oakton, Va., a suburb of 35,000 people about 20 miles west of Washington, D.C.
He grew up in a five-bedroom, two-story, gray Colonial home now valued at more than $1 million. His siblings, an older brother and younger sister, ultimately became attorneys.
His father, Owen James Evans, worked for the International Monetary Fund before his death in 1999. His mother, Pat Stack, worked as an attorney in Washing-
ton, D.C., before switching careers and becoming a top-selling Realtor in 2001.
As a teenager, Evans showed much promise, according to his attorney.
“He was very bright, in gifted classes, popular and athletic,” Mourer said. “Brendan played football briefly in high school and for several years he swam and played baseball in a recreational league.”
His high school girlfriend described him as clever and streetwise.
“Really there was nothing about him that would trigger alarms,” she wrote by email, insisting on anonymity due to nature of the case against Evans.
“Brendan had always been very intellectually sharp and street savvy, a bit of a smart ass with a mouth really,” she said. But nothing indicated he would abuse an animal. His arrest left her in “utter shock,” she said.
Others in Evans’ hometown viewed him as unremarkable and detached.
Former schoolmate Danny Sharpe, 32, doesn’t remember much about Evans, even though they lived on the same block and went to the same high school.
“I never even said hi to him,” Sharpe said. “I didn’t hang out with him at all.”
Evans graduated from Oakton High School in 2005, school officials confirmed. They declined to provide details about his time there, citing Virginia’s confidentiality laws.
Evans’ troubles apparently began soon after high school, including run-ins with the law.
In 2005 and 2006, he was charged with possession of marijuana in Virginia; the following year he was charged with DUI.
In 2008, before coming to Florida, he had an apartment in Fairfax., Va., but moved out after police arrested him on drug dealing charges.
A former neighbor, who asked not to be identified because he didn’t want trouble with Evans, does not have fond memories of the man who used to live next door.
“He wasn’t very personable,” he said, standing in the hallway outside Evans’ old apartment. “He always had people in and out. We’d find drug paraphernalia – baggies – outside and near the doorway.”
His former girlfriend also recalls Evans’ slide.
“When I broke things off, he was on the fast track to a deep downward spiral,’’ she said. “The last time we saw one another and spoke was right as we were separating where he said he was going to admit himself to a psych ward.”
Mourer, Evans’ attorney, said her client’s family has a genetic history of schizophrenia.
The psychotic disorder can cause people to lose touch with reality. Symptoms can include hallucinations and delusions, paranoia, depression, aggression, compulsive behavior and social isolation. In men, symptoms typically show up sometime between their late teens and early 20s.
When Evans was young, Mourer said, he showed no signs of mental illness. But “when he was 13, his father died and Brendan’s path took a turn toward depression and drug use. In his early to mid-twenties, Brendan experienced the first signs of mental illness.”
Those signs, she said, included episodes of extreme anxiety and paranoia.
Evans’ mother could not be reached for comment about her son, despite a visit to her home and real estate office in Virginia.
“She said it’s a private matter between her and her son,” said Jill Landsman, spokeswoman for the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.
Evans’ attorney said he sought treatment at more than a dozen hospitals in Florida as well as several in northern Virginia. In most instances, he was released within 72 hours or turned away from the emergency room, Mourer said.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel asked to review those records, but Mourer said they were private documents and cannot be disclosed.
Evans’ legal problems gradually grew worse. In 2012, he was arrested in Pompano Beach on domestic violence charges. His girlfriend accused him of punching her, but the charges were dismissed when she declined to cooperate with authorities.
Evans ran into trouble again in August 2015, when he was arrested for robbing a bank near Tampa and sentenced to 15 years of probation.
“Brendan got on a bicycle, rode to a local bank and demanded money — all without any weapon,” his attorney said. “He then cycled back to the residential psychiatric center where he was living and waited to be arrested.”
Evans, who worked off and on as a personal trainer while living in Hollywood, stayed below the radar for a time, enrolling in a fictionwriting class at Palm Beach State College in Boca Raton.
Delray Beach resident Kimberly Murphy met him in class in January. On most days, he seemed a bit off, she said.
“He always had this look on his face, like he was zoned out, in his head,” she said. “He’d leave in the middle of class.”
Boynton Beach resident Nicole Eitel met Evans when he adopted a kitten and mother cat from her roommate last year.
He was not at all menacing, she said. But when he texted her roommate a couple weeks later asking for more kittens, they feared the worst.
Then came the discovery of Ollie, bleeding and barely alive when found crammed inside a suitcase on Lee Street, not far from Evans’ apartment. Ollie died two days later, despite attempts by veterinarians to save him.
Police matched Evans’ DNA to DNA found on the suitcase, but they have not said whether Ollie was Evans’ dog.
If convicted of animal cruelty, Evans could face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Prosecutors are seeking to double the penalty to 10 years.