By Molly Moorhead, Times Staff Writer
Monday, August 30, 2010
NEW PORT RICHEY — Corey Evans went to the house on Oxenham Avenue to hang out and play video games. His cousin, Kenneth Evans, lived there, running a 24/7 drug operation, authorities said. And early on Oct. 16, 2008, while Evans slept on the couch, three men broke in to rob the place of guns and money. Evans got caught in the crossfire and died.
This week, one of the alleged intruders is on trial for first-degree murder. Calvin Leon Washington, 21, faces life in prison if convicted.
Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis told jurors Monday that Washington, of Brooksville, picked up his cousin Ricky Washington and friend Taequan Griffin. The two men thought they were going to do a drug deal, Halkitis said, but Calvin Washington handed them each a handgun.
They climbed in through an unlocked bathroom window, and gunfire erupted.
Corey Evans was shot three times and sustained minor injuries. Griffin was shot in the back and left paralyzed.
Halkitis did not say Calvin Washington fired the bullet that killed Corey Evans, but Washington can still be convicted of murder if he was committing another felony at the time Evans was shot.
Kenneth Evans took the stand and described waking up that night to get a drink and seeing a handgun pointing into his bedroom. He grabbed the gun and wrestled with the man wielding it, who wore a bandanna over his face.
He fired until the gun ran out of bullets, then retrieved his own handgun from under his bed. When the shooting finally stopped, he said, he went out to help his cousin in the living room.
"He had a hole through his head," Kenneth Evans said. "I picked him up, I held him in my arms, I laid him on the floor."
During the mayhem, Halkitis said, the injured Griffin was dragged out the bathroom window. Ricky and Calvin Washington dropped him off at a Spring Hill hospital, then fled. Weeks later, detectives caught up to Calvin Washington.
Assistant public defender Gary Welch pinned the crime on Griffin. His blood was all over the .38-caliber, Welch said.
Molly Moorhead can be reached at moorhead@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6245.