Fayetteville man charged with murder of infant appears in court

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Fayetteville man charged with the murder of an infant made his first court appearance Wednesday.

Darrell Lamar Evans Jr., 21, was arrested Tuesday and charged with felony child abuse and the first-degree murder of an infant. Authorities say the baby died of a traumatic brain injury.

"I've been doing this for 25 years, and unfortunately, and I've seen a lot of bad crimes. But the ones with the children are the ones that really stick with you and that are difficult to see," said District Attorney Billy West of Cumberland County.

Investigators said Evans, who is not the child's father, was babysitting the infant at a Cumberland County home on May 8. That's when the mother came home and found the baby unresponsive and then took the child to the hospital.

Authorities said the baby was first taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. That's where deputies were called because the child was suffering from a traumatic brain injury.

They tried to transfer the child to Duke Hospital. However, the child was too unstable. That's when doctors attempted an emergency surgery, but to no avail. The baby died at Cape Fear the next day.

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Evans was out on bond for a list of other charges, including domestic violence and a felony assault when the incident happened.

"The charges that he has pending, we spoke with Judge Hood about are pending and innocent until proven guilty and are less serious than this charge," West said. "But at the same time, he did have prior charges, some of those included alleged assaultive conduct, and now we've got the most serious assaultive conduct here in homicide, so it's definitely concerning."

West said that after an autopsy, investigators believed the child died of blunt force trauma from a strike, shaking or both.

The baby's mother and her loved ones were in court Wednesday, but they did not want to talk.

Evans is due back in court next month.

Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to please call Cumberland County Sheriff's Office Homicide Detective Sr. Sgt. Brinkley at (910) 677-5503.

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