Posted on 02/04/2005 2:46:58 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick
The high school cheerleader who allegedly hid the stolen handgun used to kill actress Nicole duFresne never should have covered up for the murderer, the actress' heartbroken fiancé said yesterday.
"She didn't have to flee the state, hide the gun and take on another person's crime in the way that she did," 29-year-old Jeffrey Sparks said of Ashley Evans, who went to her father's Maryland home after the crime.
"She could have come forward. She didn't have to hide out," Sparks said before a memorial ceremony on the lower East Side to honor the woman he had planned to marry in October.
Evans, 18, was among a gang of teens who jumped 28-year-old duFresne, Sparks and another couple as they walked home around 3 a.m. on Jan. 27, cops said.
The accused gunman, Rudy Fleming, 19, is facing first-degree murder charges. Evans and another girl, 14-year-old Tatianna McDonald, are charged with second-degree murder for their roles in the slaying.
Yesterday, another teen in Fleming's crew, a 15-year-old boy, was ordered held without bail in Family Court for his alleged role in a robbery that took place shortly before the duFresne slaying.
Detective George Taylor testified that the boy told him he targeted the earlier victim - 20-year-old Adam Chavez - because he wanted his white jacket.
The 15-year-old told cops that Fleming smashed Chavez in the head with the same gun he used later when he "shot a woman on Clinton St.," Taylor testified.
Evans allegedly tucked the murder weapon into her pants and later hid the gun at a friend's home.
DuFresne was killed after she confronted Fleming for pistol-whipping Sparks, telling him: "What are you going to do, shoot us?" authorities said.
The actress died in her fiancé's arms.
"My main regret is that I didn't take her hand and pull her with me down the sidewalk" after being pistol-whipped, Sparks wept yesterday.
Despite his agony, he still had sympathy for Evans.
"I feel so horrible for her and her family," he said. "She of all people had a lot to lose and a lot to gain from coming forward."
Sparks spoke after he and duFresne's friends gathered at the Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts on Norfolk St. to celebrate her life.
During an elaborate ceremony, friends bearing candles walked to the spot where she was killed. Once there, Sparks drew an outline of a body in blue chalk, laid rope and flowers inside, and lit them on fire.
It was a tribute the slain actress and playwright would have understood, he said.
As the memorial was going on, a teen in the Fleming gang, who was questioned by cops and not charged, stepped out of his apartment in the Baruch Houses and asked reporters if he could go to the tribute a few blocks away.
"You think I'd get in trouble?" asked Servano Simmon, 17. "Do you think they'd be mad if I went to the memorial service?"
He then changed his mind and went back inside.
With Jonathan Lemire
Jeffrey Sparks, fiancé of Nicole duFresne, plays drum at candlelight procession to honor the slain actress.
Larger photos from the NY Post:
SPIRIT BURNS BRIGHT: Jeffrey Sparks beats a drum yesterday over flames marking his fiancee's silhouette.
Photo: Robert Miller
At least he didn't pull a full Matthew McConaughey and managed to keep his clothes on while banging the bongo...
:sigh: He should keep his mouth shut.
He can't help it -- he's an Oprahfied self-absorbed ninny.
"My main regret is that I didn't take her hand and pull her with me down the sidewalk" after being pistol-whipped, Sparks wept yesterday.
*** So he is admitting he was being a scared little girlyman.
Exactly. Kind of like how if my grandmother had balls she'd have been my grandfather... Then again, if this wuss had any, his fiancee might still be alive.
A bongo and flaming silhouette.
Yeah, that'll help.
Agreed.
It's nice that he wore clean pants to the wake.
Oh, for Pete's Sake! Can't these people just ever shut up and grieve for their loved ones without making a public spectacle of themselves?
What next? Will he be championing cleaning up that part of NYC, and inviting hoodlums into his own home to rehab them?
What a self-serving POSER!
There is a lesson in this tragedy. Don't date prissy, new age, pretty boys who won't come to your aid when some punk has a gun to your chest.
Jeez, this guy hasn't a clue.
I'll take murdering thugs for 500.
Let's go walking around NYC at three in the morning.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Sorry your time is up.
Wrong answer.
It sounds as if she was the real man of the couple.
You got that right.
They all seem to want to pin a medal on the shooters chest for being a victim of society.
Wait a minute it's all coming to me now it's it's Bushes fault...
Sheesh, hemp smoke and everything.
Quintessential blue-staters. These creatures really do live in a different world. God help us all if they ever marshall a majority of the elctorate.
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