On the evening of May 31, 2014, a tragic event unfolded in the Salt Lake City suburb of Kearns, Utah, ending the life of 49-year-old Theodore Kelbach, a White male. Kelbach was at his home with a female acquaintance when a knock came at the door. When he went to answer it, a loud bang was heard, and a man was seen fleeing the residence in a car. Kelbach was found shortly after, having been shot through the eye at close range.
Investigators quickly focused on a suspect, Douglas Dwayne
Evans, then 31 years old. The motive, as determined by police, was a case of unwarranted jealousy. Evans wrongly believed that his girlfriend was secretly involved in a romantic relationship with Kelbach. Detectives later confirmed that no such relationship existed between the victim and Evans's girlfriend.
Douglas Evans was arrested on Monday, June 2, 2014, in the parking lot of a hotel in West Jordan. He was subsequently charged with murder and aggravated burglary. During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that included text messages from Evans to his girlfriend on the day of the shooting, in which he accused her of cheating with Kelbach and made threats involving a gun. Furthermore, DNA evidence from a red hat left at the crime scene was matched to Evans, and phone data placed him in the vicinity of Kelbach's home around the time of the murder.
A key witness, a woman who was with Kelbach at the time of the shooting, testified to hearing him shout, "I haven't seen her, I swear," just before the fatal shot was fired. Although her description of the suspect's hair initially seemed to conflict with Evans's appearance, a neighbor's testimony described seeing a man with long dreadlocks, similar to Evans's hairstyle, at Kelbach's home on the night of the incident. Following the trial, a jury found Douglas Dwayne Evans guilty of the murder of Theodore Kelbach.
