A man pleaded guilty Tuesday to criminal charges stemming from the theft of Beyoncé’s unreleased music, set lists and more from a vehicle in Atlanta, a Fulton County court spokesperson has announced.
Kelvin Evans was due to stand trial this week in Fulton County Superior Court but pleaded guilty Tuesday to single counts of criminal trespass and entering a vehicle with the intent to commit theft, the court’s senior public affairs officer, Mario Boone, said.
Boone said Senior Judge Jane Barwick sentenced Evans to two years in prison and three years on probation, and ordered him to stay away from the victims of the crime and the downtown Atlanta parking garage where it happened last July.
Evans’ lawyer, a public defender, and spokespeople for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office did not respond Tuesday to inquiries about the case.
Court records show Evans’ trial started with jury selection Monday.
Evans was arrested in September, accused of breaking out the back window of a Jeep Wagoneer that had been rented by Beyoncé’s choreographer, Christopher Grant, and stealing four black bags containing unreleased music, set lists and footage plans for her tour shows.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
The theft happened in a parking deck on Krog Street two days before the Grammy Award-winning musician’s “Cowboy Carter Tour” kicked off in Atlanta.
Evans, 40 at the time of his arrest, pleaded not guilty earlier this year.
According to a police report, Grant and one of Beyoncé’s dancers, Diandre Blue, returned to the car around 9 p.m. on July 8 after getting food and noticed the window had been broken.
“It’s really, really important information in there,” the 911 caller told dispatchers in audio released by Atlanta police. “Like, I work with someone who is, like, of a high status, and I really need my computer and everything.”
Computer hard drives containing watermarked music, some unreleased music, footage plans for Beyoncé’s show, and past and future set lists were stolen, police said. Other stolen items included laptops, clothes, Tom Ford sunglasses, a book bag and a pair of AirPods Max headphones, according to the report.
Police said the items were not recovered. They said Tuesday there is nothing new to report about the case.
Police said cameras captured the theft at the entrance of the parking deck, where Evans was seen getting out of a red Hyundai Elantra that was parked next to the Jeep. He was then captured on video taking the items from the vehicle and leaving the scene, police said.
The Elantra was tracked to a Northside Drive property, where officers arrested a woman who stated she was Evans’ niece and that he had asked her to pick him up on the night of the theft, police said. Evans was later captured pulling four black bags out of the vehicle at an apartment complex on Hank Aaron Drive, where one of the laptops had been pinging, his arrest warrant stated.
Online records show Evans has been arrested more than a dozen times on charges of entering cars in Fulton County over the past two decades. He has been in and out of the prison system more than seven times since 2005, according to Georgia Department of Corrections records.
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