FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jury Finds Slidell Man Guilty of Distributing Fentanyl
July 21, 2024
District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on July 19, 2024, a St. Tammany Parish jury deliberated less than an hour before returning guilty verdicts against 43-year-old Majuangy Evans of Slidell for Distribution of Fentanyl, Conducting a transaction involving proceeds known to be derived from a drug law violation and Possession of Methamphetamine. Assistant District Attorneys Casey Allen and Christina Fisher prosecuted the case. Judge John Keller presided over the three-day trial. Detectives Ben Williams and Brittany French with the Slidell Police Department led the investigation.
Testimony established that detectives with the Slidell Police Department were alerted by a concerned citizen that the defendant, Majuangy Evans, was conducting drug transactions at various gas stations throughout Slidell. In response to this information, detectives began surveilling Evans. On the morning of December 21, 2022, detectives observed Evans stop at a gas station on Natchez Drive. Evans purchased fuel for his vehicle but did not immediately depart. Instead, Evans sat in his vehicle and scanned the parking lot as if looking for someone. A few minutes later, a van arrived at the gas station. A male wearing a hospital wristband and dressed in a hospital gown exited the van and immediately entered the passenger seat of Evans’s vehicle. Detectives then observed Evans and the second male engage in what appeared to be a drug transaction. As the second male exited the defendant’s vehicle, the detectives approached on foot. After detaining the male in the hospital gown, detectives noticed in the area he had been standing was a plastic baggie containing what was later confirmed to be Fentanyl. The male acknowledged he had just purchased the drugs from Evans but the jury was not permitted to hear that information. Detectives arrested Evans and a search of his person resulted in the recovery of $614 cash.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for Evans’s residence on Eleventh Street in Slidell. During the search of the residence, detectives found $5,000 cash in the pocket of a jacket hanging in a bedroom closet. A small amount of methamphetamine was found in the same bedroom.
Before the trial commenced, Evans informed the court that he would forego an attorney and represent himself at trial. During the taking of testimony from Detective Williams, Evans spent several hours cross-examining Williams, attempting to discredit him. After the prosecutors rested their case, Evans testified on his own behalf. During his testimony, Evans admitted to being a drug dealer. He claimed he “quit the game” eight days prior to his arrest because he knew the police had been alerted to his drug dealing activities. Evans claimed the large sums of money police recovered from his person and residence resulted from his skill and talents in playing “number crunching games.” When asked to explain his gas station lot meeting with the male in the hospital gown, he said he had lent money to the man in the past and the man drove himself from the hospital simply to repay Evans. Evans conceded he had sold drugs to the man in the past but was steadfast in denying he had sold him any drugs during this particular encounter at the gas station.
Sentencing of Evans is scheduled for October 10th. Distribution of Fentanyl carries a sentence of between five and forty years in prison. At the time of this incident, Evans was on parole after having served 19 years in prison on a 45-year sentence he received for a drug trafficking conviction out of Jefferson Parish.