By Michael Morton
The cheerleader, 18-year-old Ashley Evans of 130-08 160th St., pleaded not guilty during her arraignment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan March 1 on charges of murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney said. Evans must return to court March 31, and could face up to life in prison if later convicted.While Evans' teenage boyfriend was charged with actually firing the shot that killed Nicole duFresne, the 18-year-old was accused of being present at the crime and later hiding the gun for the alleged triggerman.At the time of the Jan. 27 shooting, Evans was living with her boyfriend in Manhattan because she had been having problems with her divorced parents, she told a detective in her first statement to the police Feb. 1. The day of the shooting, Evans' boyfriend came home upset because his parole officer told him he could no longer live in their Manhattan apartment and he did not have money to do anything else, Evans said.That night, as Evans and a group of friends walked around the Lower East Side, the boys teased the girls that they never picked fights with anyone, the 18-year-old wrote in her second statement, given Feb. 2. Evans responded that she would hit the next person she saw.When she saw duFresne and the actress' friends, “they were extremely happy, so that made me even angrier,” the 18-year-old said.Even though duFresne and her friends crossed the street before Evans could hit one of them, the 18-year-old's boyfriend ran in front of them and ordered them against the wall, pistol-whipping duFresne's fiance when he failed to follow his order, Evans said. Evans' boyfriend threw one of the women's purses to her and another teenage girl, and they pulled out a cell phone.DuFresne then pushed Evans' boyfriend and shouted “You got what you wanted!” Evans said. He pushed the actress away, but when she came after him again, he slipped in the snow and the gun went off, Evans said. Her boyfriend handed her the gun and they ran back to their apartment, she said. Another friend burned the cell phone and ran it under water, and the group agreed there would be no snitches, Evans said.Evans' lawyer, Michael Dreishpoon, said, “she made a statement and now we have to deal with it.” He said an upcoming pretrial hearing would give him more of a sense if the statement was voluntary and Evans' rights had been protected.The 18-year-old is a student at Jamaica's August Martin High School, and her father is a former police officer in South Jamaica's 113th Precinct. In a New York Post interview from jail, Evans said her boyfriend had promised to marry her.Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
