CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — A 74-year-old grieving mother described her 43-year-old son-in-law as controlling and his relationship with her 38-year-old daughter before her death in Coral Springs as abusive.
Jeffrey E. Evans, II, a former Davie Fire Rescue Department lieutenant, walked out of jail on Friday. He faced a misdemeanor charge. Jessica Lloyd, a nurse he had wed last year, died on Monday -- after a neighbor reported hearing her scream, “My husband is trying to kill me!”
Rita Lloyd said she and her family were concerned before they learned that police officers found her dead, face down, in a canal near their home at 9901 NW 15 Court.
“We had a beautiful daughter who was alive and well. We lost contact with her. She was very isolated, not allowed to work,” Rita Lloyd said.
Evans, who was born in Fort Lauderdale and stopped working for DFRD on Feb. 28, was talkative with Coral Springs police officers and with reporters after he walked out of jail in Pompano Beach.
According to the police report, Evans said they had gotten into an argument over infidelity, she fell while they wrestled over a laptop -- and she screamed when he was restraining her.
A police officer wrote that Evans said he saw his wife “running from in between two houses ... screaming for help” before she “fell in the middle of the street” and was yelling, “Help! He is going to kill me!”
Evans said he decided to “stop chasing” her and ran back to the house to call 911 for help, according to the police report. Records show he called shortly after 8:50 p.m. to report Lloyd was experiencing a “mental break.”
About six minutes later, a 911 caller reported hearing a woman screaming in the neighborhood that her husband wanted to kill her, according to a police report.
“She wouldn’t be screaming out like that if something wasn’t happening to her,” Rita Lloyd said.
Evans reported his wife had vanished. After pulling her out of the water, Jessica Lloyd was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m., police said.
Police officers decided to arrest Evans for the domestic violence before the death, so he faced a charge of battery, touch, or strike, a first-degree misdemeanor.
“I can’t comment on ongoing investigations. I’m sure any lawyer in the world would kill me if they knew that I said anything. The only thing I want to say is I love my wife,” Evans said after walking out of jail.
When asked if he knew how Lloyd ended up in the water, Evans said, “Can I please not speculate on things that I don’t know about?”
On the suspicions that his wife was a murder victim, Evans said, “It’s not what happened, it’s not the truth ... Let’s wait for things to unfold, please. My life is over -- no matter what happens.”
Rita Lloyd isn’t so convinced and said, “My daughter didn’t end up in a canal by herself.”
Court records show two different women had accused Evans of domestic violence before in Broward County. An ex-wife accused him in 2018 before their divorce, records show.
Prosecutors filed a first-degree misdemeanor battery case after a CSPD officer arrested Evans in 2020 at the same house. He was working for DFRD then. The arrest report identifies Evans as his girlfriend and cites photos of her injuries.
“I observed a white female storm out of the front door of the residence screaming for help,” a police officer wrote, adding that he saw Evans chasing her, and the victim reported that he had punched her in the face and hit her in the back of the head, according to the July 3, 2020, arrest report.
According to the Broward County State Attorney’s Office on Friday, the 2020 case was dropped since there weren’t “independent witnesses” and the victim “submitted a waiver of prosecution and an affidavit stating that the suspect did not punch or strike her.”
Court records on Evans also show a Broward judge issued a temporary injunction for domestic violence on Dec. 17, 2020, and the case was dismissed on Jan. 20, 2021.
Broward County Circuit Judge Chris Brown was set to preside over the new pending domestic violence misdemeanor case.
“I know what people think. I know what people think of me,” Evans said while wearing an ankle GPS monitor outside of jail.
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 to remain anonymous.
Related coverage
- New details revealed after Coral Springs woman found dead in canal, husband arrested on domestic violence charge
- Coral Springs man arrested in domestic violence incident after wife found dead in canal, cops say
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