Bastrop man sentenced to 32 years in Killeen murder case

In February of 2020, Cuellar fatally stabbed 63-year-old Ann Smith Evans and then rifled through her Killeen home in order to steal. Cuellar has been held in the Bell County Jail since his arrest on March 22, 2020. He also was charged with a third-degree felony charge of tampering with evidence after police said he pawned items belonging to Evans. On Tuesday, Cuellar pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Before making his decision, LePak heard testimony from the Killeen Police Department detective who investigated the homicide and one of Evans’s three daughters.

“Our relationship was working toward friendship,” said one of the daughters, Madelyn Crumley of Austin. “We were seeing each other every few weeks and we talked quite a bit.”

Crumley said that she was raised by grandparents after her mother and father divorced.

“When we reconnected, when I was in my 20s, she told me why she had left,” Crumley said. “Before she died, I’d been in the hospital and she stayed with me day and night for weeks.”

Crumley remembered the day that one of her sisters called to tell her their mother was deceased, but the women did not know Evans had been murdered.

“When I arrived, there were a lot of police vehicles and a white van in the front yard and I was wondering what was going on,” Crumley said. “We waited for what seemed like hours ... later we were told it was a ‘homicide investigation.’”

FROM ‘SUSPICIOUS DEATH’ TO MURDER

On Feb. 9, 2020, Killeen police were called for a welfare check at the Wisconsin Drive home, where officers found Evans in her bedroom, deceased with a pillow on her face. Police at first treated it as a “suspicious death.”

“The body was decaying when it was found, so the laceration to her neck was not seen until they began to move the body to take photographs,” said now-retired KPD Detective Heath Crum, who testified on Tuesday.

Police said that jewelry and computers were taken from the home and pawned by Cuellar, who was the boyfriend of Evans’s granddaughter, according to the arrest affidavit and testimony during the sentencing hearing. Prescription medication also was discovered to be missing.

“His pawn history showed that he was a petty thief and had stolen items from Evans before,” Crum said. “After his girlfriend found the pawn tickets for two of Evans’s rings in his wallet, (the girlfriend) called her mother (Evans’s daughter), who called us.”

Police said that Cuellar returned to the home the day after the murder to steal more items.

Crum testified for the defense that two relatives of Evans were investigated as persons of interest but that no charges were filed because of a lack of corroborating evidence.

“At first, he was reluctant to talk, but he later came clean about being involved,” Crum said. “He said he went inside (Evans’s house) and found (the relative) holding the grandmother down with a pillow and a knife. (The relative) told him to ‘hit the knife’ into her neck, which he did. He and (the relative) were going to split insurance money, but no insurance money existed.”

Assistant District Attorney Erica Morgan then questioned Crum regarding the difference between his personal and professional opinions regarding the alleged culpability of Evans’s relatives.

“You made a choice not to present charges because other than the statement of a confessed murderer, there was no corroboration,” Morgan said.

Heath agreed there was no evidence against the relatives, who denied involvement.

“I don’t have the evidence to either prove or disprove that (the relatives) were involved and Cuellar confessed to the crime,” Crum said. “My opinion is that he went along with it because he has a weak personality.”

Cuellar’s defense attorney cast his client in the best light possible.

“From day one, he has taken responsibility for his role, but it’s clear there should be a co-defendant in this case,” said Zach Boyd, in his closing arguments. “He’s a follower and he participated, but he’s not the worst actor in this case. He was tricked by a dominant woman. The defense believes he walked in on something and was set up.”

The plea agreement called for a cap of 40 years, and the state’s prosecutor argued that Cuellar deserved every day of those decades.

“He plunged a knife into Ann Evans’s neck...he stole her future with her daughters and grandchildren,” Morgan said, during her closing arguments. “The ‘co-defendants’ are just a smokescreen. There is no evidence anyone else was involved; if so, I’d like to bring them to justice.”

Morgan told the court that Cuellar attended Evans’ celebration of life ceremony.

“There he was socializing with surviving family members,” she said. “That is something a horrible person does.”

Evans left behind 11 grandchildren.