CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The man convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 4-year-old Johns Island girl has pleaded guilty to state charges.
Thomas Evans, 38, was booked into the Al Canon Detention Center by US Marshals on Sept. 27, ahead of his court appearance on Thursday.
During the court hearing, Evans pleaded guilty to all charges including, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
“I will always remember the feeling of my skull hitting the hardwood, the feeling of a knife being held against my jugular. How it felt to be brutally tied up to the point of losing circulation in my hands,” said Brittany Todd, who spoke of the attack in court Thursday.
A federal judge handed down three consecutive life sentences in March of 2019 after Evans pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Johns Island girl and driving her to Alabama after violently attacking her mother.
Prosecutors said Evans followed the mother and daughter to their home in February of that year where he then assaulted the woman and kidnapped the 4-year-old.
The girl was able to escape in Alabama after a railroad crew spotted Evans asleep in his car. He was later arrested in Mississippi after a police chase.