Mugshot of Ivan Evans. Photo Credit: THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT
ST. THOMAS — A man appeared before the criminal courts on Wednesday after allegedly assaulting his sister over their mother’s property.
On March 22, responding VIPD officers met with a woman at the Schneider Regional Medical Center. Limping and covered in blood, she told police that she had arrived on St. Thomas a few days prior for her monthly trip to check on her mother’s property. On March 21, while walking down the stairs in her mother’s home, she says she was struck on her right thigh by her brother Ivan Evans, who proceeded to hit her several times with the flat side of a machete. He struck her about 15-17 times on her right leg and right hand, the woman said, according to court documents. Despite allegedly suffering from a neurological condition which prevents her from feeling pain, she said that she did not want to give her brother the satisfaction of potentially seeing her hurting, so she went back inside the residence after the attack. She told police she could not believe that her brother had assaulted her.
The following day she called the 911 Central Dispatch to report the incident. When police got to the residence they attempted to make contact with Evans who locked himself inside his apartment. The woman was transported to the hospital to treat her injuries – two fractures and one broken bone in her right hand and several abrasions on her right thigh.
This is not the first time that Evans has allegedly assaulted his sister. According to documents presented in court, he did the same in January but the woman did not report the incident to police at the time. Evans's animosity towards his sister allegedly stems from a dispute over the ownership of their mother’s property — a dispute that hasn't been resolved. Another man who was on the property on March 21 told police that Evans had also attacked him, but he left moments before the incident happened.
On March 22, Evans presented himself to police. He said that his sister had threatened to assault him and approached him aggressively. To defend himself, he said he picked up the nearest object — a piece of wood — and began swinging it at his sister. He could not recall the number of times that the object hit the woman. Evans claimed to have filed previous reports about his sister's behavior towards him.
Pending further investigations, police released Evans on March 22 but he turned himself in to police again on March 28 and was then arrested and charged with third-degree assault as an act of domestic violence, using a dangerous weapon as a convicted felon, and disturbance of the peace.
His advice of rights hearing was scheduled for Wednesday March 29, 2023. Court records indicate that a pre-trial release order was issued by the presiding judge, but no details had been released on the court’s public access website at time of publication.
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