Evans' murder conviction upheld by appeals court

Missouri's Eastern District Court of Appeals has decided Glen Scott Evans has no grounds for appealing the judgment he received last year.

In March 2014, a jury in Cape Girardeau convicted Evans of second-degree murder in connection with the death of Sean Crow, whose body was found Feb. 20, 2013, in his truck outside a McDonald's restaurant in Advance, Missouri.

Evans was sentenced to 25 years in prison in May and almost immediately filed an appeal.

Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver said in the appeal, Evans questioned the sufficiency of the evidence used against him in his trial, as well as alleging his arrest was warrantless.

Evans also challenged whether the statement he provided to police was given voluntarily, because of his intoxication at the time.

Before the trial, Evans' attorney, James McClellan, had sought to suppress incriminating statements his client made to police after his arrest, saying Evans was too intoxicated and sleep-deprived to know what he was doing.

A videotape of those statements was a key piece of evidence during the trial.

"The Eastern District Court of Appeals upheld Evans' conviction, and did so without issuing any public opinion," Oliver said. "Basically, that means the court didn't find that there were any outstanding issues or precedental value."

Oliver said he was pleased to know the conviction was upheld.

"A lot of work went into that case," Oliver said. "I'm pleased that this ruling essentially closes any window for further challenges."

At trial, prosecutors said Evans facilitated Crow's death by driving another Dexter man, 30-year-old Matthew Cook, to Advance for the purpose of killing Crow.

Cook pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for a life sentence in December. Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for Cook.

After being successfully prosecuted and sentenced before Cook, Evans refused to testify against Cook, which prompted the prosecution to allow the plea deal.

According to Oliver, Evans has limited options now, as he possibly could file only a motion alleging improper defense on his behalf.

"He has a 180-day window to file such a motion," Oliver said. "I hadn't heard anything about that yet. I don't know that he's going to do that. There really aren't any other options left for him."