Girl, 18, Charged in Killing of Actress in Manhattan

Alan Chin for The New York Times
Ashley Evans, 18, in police
custody yesterday outside the
Seventh Precinct station house on
the Lower East Side. She is
charged with second-degree
murder and robbery in the killing
of Nicole duFresne.

Another young woman was charged with murder yesterday in the killing of an actress last week on the Lower East Side, the second to be linked to the 19-year-old man accused of shooting the victim during a robbery.

The new suspect, Ashley Evans, 18, left New York sometime after the Thursday morning shooting and went to her father's house in Cheltenham, Md., where detectives picked her up on Tuesday and drove her to Manhattan, the police said. She was arrested early yesterday morning.

Her family members in South Jamaica, Queens, with whom she lived before she moved out recently, said they had been following the story about the killing of the actress, Nicole duFresne, on the news, and that they were stunned when detectives told them Ms. Evans was involved.

"She never was a bad child, getting into anything of that sort, because she wasn't taught those things," said a woman on the telephone who identified herself only as a close relative. "We're hard-working people."

Ms. Evans's mother, Lydia Evans, said: "I'd like to tell the family I'm very sorry for their loss. I'm praying for their loss and that the Lord will give their family strength, as well as ours."

Ms. duFresne, her fiancé and another couple had left the bar Max Fish in the Lower East Side after 3 a.m. when they were confronted by a group on Clinton Street near Rivington Street. Her fiancé, Jeffrey Sparks, was pistol-whipped, and was walking away from the attackers when Ms. duFresne was shot, after she was reported to utter the defiant last words, "What are you going to do, shoot us?"

The police arrested the man they identified as the gunman, Rudy Fleming, 19, on Sunday night, and a 14-year-old girl, Tatianna McDonald of Brooklyn, on Monday. News reports linked the two romantically, but the police said yesterday that it was Ms. Evans, not Ms. McDonald, who was Mr. Fleming's girlfriend.

But yesterday, Servisio Simmon, 21, part of Mr. Fleming's group, said that Mr. Fleming did not intend to shoot Ms. duFresne. He said, "She kept raging after Rudy, she kept pushing him, she slipped over the snow." He added, "It went off," referring to the gun.

Mr. Simmon also said that Ms. duFresne said to Mr. Fleming, "You got what you want? You got what you want?" and not, "What are you going to do, shoot us?"

Ms. McDonald has been charged with second-degree murder and robbery. On Wednesday night, Ms. Evans was arraigned on charges of second-degree murder, first-degree burglary and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Investigators said Mr. Fleming took a purse from the other woman in the group who had left Max Fish, Mary Jane Gibson, and gave it to Ms. Evans and Ms. McDonald. Ms. Evans took credit cards from the purse, and Ms. McDonald took a cellphone, a law enforcement official said yesterday.

Both Ms. McDonald and Ms. Evans knew Mr. Fleming was carrying a gun before the crimes occurred, another law enforcement official said. Ms. Evans is further accused of taking the murder weapon, a .357 Magnum revolver that someone stole from its legal owner in Georgetown, S.C., in 2002, to the nearby Baruch Houses later that night, where Mr. Fleming was staying with his godfather and two of the men in his group. The police said they later found the gun under a bed in the apartment.

"She took the gun and hid the gun," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday at a news conference in Brooklyn.

The felony murder charge leveled against the two women allows prosecutors to assign criminal responsibility to them even if they were not the ones who pulled the trigger. They took part in the robbery during which the killing occurred, the authorities said, and so bear some of the responsibility - so the legal reasoning goes.

The case is strongest against Ms. Evans, who took the gun back to the apartment where Mr. Fleming was staying, prosecutors said.

Of the four other young men present that night, two of them, brothers ages 17 and 21, are being treated as witnesses and have not been charged. Two others, David Simmon, 18, a cousin of Servisio Simmon, and Kashawn Boyd, 15, were charged with trying to rob a man in the neighborhood earlier that morning.

The police have said that the men told detectives they were shocked when Mr. Fleming fired.

Ms. Evans's father, Wayne Evans, who is divorced from her mother, said in a telephone interview from Maryland that his daughter was supposed to visit him earlier in the month, but that the blizzard delayed her.

"The police officer gave me a call and said they're going to come by and pick up Ashley, and I said, 'Come down and get her.' They said they wanted to question her," said Mr. Evans, who was a New York City police officer for three years, leaving the force in 1995. "I don't even know about this. I haven't even heard about this."

Reporting for this article was contributed by Michael Brick, Jennifer 8. Lee, William K. Rashbaum and Sabrina Tavernise

She hid the gun. She will likely get off with probation, and they're probably just insuring that she testifies against the shooter.

Funny how that happens when you put your finger on the trigger and pull. Another idiot trying to convince the public at large that guns are going around discharging on their own.

Nice group of people...

And...

The police have said that the men told detectives they were shocked when Mr. Fleming fired.

Those two statements don't jive with each other.

He said, "She kept raging after Rudy, she kept pushing him, she slipped over the snow." He added, "It went off," referring to the gun.

The attempt to paint this murdered woman (who was being robbed at gunpoint) while her finance was being pistol whipped and beaten as the aggressor in this crime is sickening.

Mr. Fleming was staying with his godfather

Revealing piece of information.

6 posted on 02/03/2005 3:31:23 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)

The libs love to call criminals "girls" or "teens" if they are 18 or 19 years old -- except when it comes to abortion, etc. Then, they are "women."

Two horrible murders this past week, both involving the children of police officers.

The little seven year old girl in NY was murdered by her father, the son of the former Police Chief of that town.

This murderer, also the daughter of a former police officer.

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