On the morning of September 4, 2020, 22-year-old Black female Pauliqua Evans was found deceased inside her apartment on Alvin Dark Avenue in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Authorities responded to a call at the Tiger Plaza apartment complex around 9:32 a.m. and discovered Evans suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Tragically, two children were also found unharmed inside the apartment and were subsequently released to family members.
The initial investigation by Baton Rouge Police detectives
did not immediately identify a motive or any suspects. The case progressed when, on September 15, 2020, Vernell Lockett, 24, was arrested in Madison Parish on unrelated charges. The following day, authorities announced that Lockett was a suspect in Evans' death.
A significant breakthrough in the case came from a Crime Stoppers tip that implicated Lockett in the shooting. He was extradited back to Baton Rouge to face charges related to the death of Pauliqua Evans.
On March 2, 2022, Vernell Lockett, then 25, was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. He was charged with second-degree murder and illegal use of a weapon for his alleged involvement in the shooting death of Pauliqua Evans. At the time of this arrest, he was already in custody in Madison Parish for the unrelated charges.
