Jennifer Evans, a 27-year-old White/Caucasian woman, was shot to death inside her townhouse on Seville Drive in the Teays Valley/Hurricane area of Putnam County, West Virginia, on September 10, 2015. The investigation quickly centered on Philip David Casto of Scott Depot, someone Evans knew and with whom prosecutors later said she had previously been involved.
According to investigators, Evans had reconciled with her husband, Michael Evans, and had attempted to end her relationship and communication with Casto. Her husband told detectives that Casto had continued pursuing her after she tried to cut off contact.
The events immediately preceding the killing were reconstructed through text messages and surveillance footage. On the afternoon of September 10, a surveillance camera near Evans' residence recorded a silver Honda Civic resembling Casto's vehicle arriving at approximately 4:38 p.m. Casto was recorded going toward the residence, and the vehicle left approximately 16 minutes later, at 4:54 p.m. During that interval, Evans sent her husband a message telling him Casto was at the home. Michael Evans told her to call police and also contacted the apartment building owner, asking that someone check on her. The owner knocked but received no response. When Michael arrived home at about 5:30 p.m., he found Evans in the kitchen with a gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators soon developed evidence suggesting the shooting had been planned rather than arising from a chance encounter. Casto had purchased a. 40-caliber Glock handgun from a Hurricane pawn shop shortly before the killing. At a later court hearing, Putnam County Detective Lt. Lisa Arthur testified that Evans suffered a through-and-through gunshot wound to the head and that a firearm connected to the purchase was recovered after Casto's vehicle was returned to West Virginia and searched. Prosecutor Mark Sorsaia told the court that forensic evidence suggested Evans may have fallen or been forced down before she was shot, noting a bruise on her arm and the trajectory of the bullet into a kitchen cabinet.
Messages Casto exchanged with a friend also became important evidence. Prosecutors said that during the days surrounding the killing, Casto discussed leaving the area, at various points mentioning Seattle and Boston. In one particularly ominous message, he indicated that his final act before leaving town would be "brutal." Those communications, combined with the gun purchase, surveillance footage, Evans' message to her husband, and the subsequent flight from West Virginia, formed much of the prosecution's case.
Casto fled north after the shooting. On September 11, 2015, authorities located him in Braintree, Massachusetts, near Boston. Braintree police, assisted by the Massachusetts State Police Fugitive Apprehension Unit, arrested him at or near South Shore Plaza without incident. Authorities later said he was carrying approximately $14,000 in cash and had substantially trimmed his hair and beard. His vehicle was located at the mall and was eventually returned to West Virginia as evidence. Casto was extradited to West Virginia and charged with first-degree murder.
At an October 2015 preliminary hearing, a magistrate found probable cause to continue the case. Investigators testified about the communications between Casto and Evans and about the similarity between the ammunition used in the killing and the type of firearm Casto had recently purchased. In July 2016, a Putnam County grand jury formally indicted Casto for first-degree murder. He initially pleaded not guilty during an August arraignment, and a trial was scheduled. Defense attorneys later sought additional time so Casto could undergo an evaluation and so experts could review the extensive evidence, resulting in the trial being postponed.
The case ultimately did not go before a jury. On January 17, 2017, Casto entered a Kennedy plea to first-degree murder in Putnam County Circuit Court. Under that procedure, the prosecution presented the factual basis for the crime while Casto did not personally provide a detailed admission of how the killing occurred. The plea left Circuit Judge Phillip Stowers to determine whether the eventual life sentence would include the possibility of parole through a grant of mercy.
During the March 30, 2017 sentencing hearing, Evans' family described the devastation caused by her death while members of Casto's family and several former co-workers asked the judge to show him mercy. Testimony also described changes in Casto's behavior during the months leading up to the shooting. His father said he had become increasingly distant and paranoid, while a former supervisor at the West Virginia Division of Highways said his work performance had deteriorated beginning earlier in 2015. After hearing nearly two hours of testimony, Judge Stowers rejected the request for mercy and sentenced Casto to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The sentence permanently resolved the criminal prosecution, but Casto did not remain in prison for long. On August 21, 2017, correctional authorities found him unresponsive in his cell at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex during a morning count. He was pronounced dead shortly afterward. State authorities said the initial indication was that Casto had died by suicide, and State Police and corrections officials opened reviews into his death. His death brought an end to any possibility of further incarceration proceedings, leaving the life-without-mercy judgment as the final court disposition for Evans' killing.
