Three days before Jason Jimmy Evans Jr. allegedly shot and critically wounded a West Valley police detective, he was safely in the custody of police and could have been jailed.Instead, agents from the state Division of Adult Probation and Parole freed Evans after he agreed to tattle on another gang member, sources and the Department of Corrections have confirmed.
The circumstances of Evans' untimely release appear to answer the question that has plagued authorities since the Aug. 15 shooting: Why did Evans allegedly step out of his car and start blazing away when detective Bob Idle's red-and-blue lights flashed in his rearview mirror?
Simply put, the 20-year-old Evans had wrung out of the system as many second chances as he could. And now he was in possession of an assault rifle, out after curfew and in the company of other gang members - all violations of his probation.
Worse, Evans faced the prospect of being hustled off to prison and labeled a snitch by other inmates, according to law enforcement and corrections officials.
"This whole thing is an indictment on the system," complained Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Jim Potter.
In the wake of the shooting, some law enforcement officials - including Potter's boss, Sheriff Aaron Kennard - urged a serious crackdown on gang violence. Kennard promised to arm his deputies to the teeth and match the gangs bullet for bullet.
Yet, as the details of Evans' trek through the criminal justice system come to light, others believe the incident demands sober introspection as much as indignation, since it was the criminal justice system and all its players that put Evans on the street.
"This case frustrated the whole system," said District Attorney Neal Gunnarson, who wasn't even aware until told by a reporter that Evans had been picked up and released on Aug. 12.
One of Gunnarson's prosecutors was at least aware of Evans' deal with AP&P, according to probation records. And one of Kennard's detectives was at least peripherally involved.
Moreover, none of those who put together the Aug. 12 deal with Evans knew that a felony kidnapping complaint that would have landed him in jail sat unsigned on another deputy district attorney's desk because a West Valley detective - one of Idle's colleagues - was on vacation that week.
"There should have been better coordination between agencies, including in this office," Gunnarson said. "There is still no guarantee that (Evans) wouldn't have been on the streets. But I would have felt far better that the coordination had taken place."
For his part, Evans played the system for all it was worth.
On probation for a felony stemming from a 1995 drive-by shooting, Evans was doing well on probation, with a couple of minor setbacks, according to AP&P. Then he allegedly abducted and beat his 16-year-old girlfriend and was arrested and booked into jail July 10.
The investigation of that case was slow but not unusually so, Gunnarson said. Nevertheless, charges weren't filed by the time Evans appeared in court to determine whether his probation should be revoked.
Court records show the prosecutor failed to appear at the hearing, and 3rd District Judge Michael K. Burton disregarded an AP&P plea that Evans be held without bail.
In the ensuing month, probation officers stepped up their already intensive supervision of Evans. During that period they obtained information that Evans had been hanging out with another member of the "Lay-Low Crips" gang named Jeremy Hendrickson.
Hendrickson, 20, was an escapee from the Oxbow Jail where he walked away from a work detail on July 27. Sheriff's fugitive detectives considered Hendrickson dangerous and an arrest priority.
AP&P agents made a surprise visit to Evans' house the afternoon of Aug. 12. There, they confronted him about his ties to Hendrickson, as well as evidence that Evans had been using drugs in violation of his probation.
The agents took him to their offices, where they and two sheriff's detectives made their offer: Give us Hendrickson, and we won't haul you into jail on a probation violation.
Evans, facing sure jail time otherwise, agreed, according to sources and confirmed by Department of Corrections officials.
Two days later, acting on information from Evans, the two sheriff's detectives, John Sharp and Roy Orton, arrested Hendrickson without incident. Two weeks later, they were unaware that their informant was the man charged with shooting Idle.
"All they knew was that he (Evans) was a gang-banger who had been twisted into giving up Hendrickson," Potter said.
Jesse Gallegos, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said the AP&P agents followed procedure. Before making their freedom-for-information deal with Evans, they received the blessing of the Salt Lake County district attorney's office and contacted 3rd District Judge Joseph Fratto Jr.
Fratto, through Jan Thompson in the Court Administrator's Office, acknowledged taking the call. He said he referred the agents to the district attorney.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Christensen, who had prosecuted Evans earlier, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
Gunnarson said the deal approved for Evans "would not be unusual," although he knew nothing of it at the time.
"Our agents, judges and prosecutors have to make these hard decisions all the time," Gallegos said. "For the most part, we do a fine job. It's tough that we don't have crystal balls. We don't want to point fingers."
Evans is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail on $300,000 bail.