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By CHRISTINE LIBERASKI; Times Leader Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 04, 1993 Page: 1 & 10A QUICK WORDS: SON NOT TYPE TO
PICK FIGHT – EVANS
TUNKHANNOCK — Tona Evans ate Chesapeake Bay crabs Friday night with her
family before going to bed with her husband, leaving her adult sons downstairs
to catch up with one another’s lives.
Hours later, she was in the parking lot of T.J.’s Lounge,
watching as the oldest of her children, Jay, unconscious and beaten, was
placed into an ambulance to be taken to an area hospital.
“I looked in his face, and it was as if someone stabbed me with a knife,”
Mrs. Evans said. “All I thought was I was going to lose this baby.”
Jay Evans III, 24, died Monday at Community Medical Center, Scranton, after
being on life support systems for nearly 48 hours.
On Tuesday, Wyoming County Coroner Thomas Kukuchka ruled his death a
homicide.
Robert Kenray Truesdale, the 26-year-old son of Wyoming County Sheriff
Robert Truesdale, was charged with aggravated assault in the beating after
witnesses identified him as the man who assaulted Evans and knocked him to the
ground.
Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. said Tuesday he is
reviewing the case to determine whether Truesdale should face additional
charges in Evans’ death. Truesdale, of Wyoming Avenue, could be charged in the
death as early as today, officials said. He is free on $35,000 bond.
Dr. Gary Ross, a medical examiner who performed the autopsy, said the cause
of death was a subdural hematoma and cerebral edema due to a fall. Lackawanna
County Chief Deputy Coroner Joseph Swobota described the autopsy ruling as
blunt trauma which results from a fall.
Evans was in Tunkhannock for the weekend visiting his family. A 1987
graduate of Tunkhannock Area High School, he was a veteran of the U.S. Army
and served in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. He had just started
a job in Bethesda, Md., and was living in Littlestown.
His mother said when Evans came home, he would spend a lot of time with his
friends. They would grab something to eat and shoot a little pool — sometimes
at T.J.’s. That’s what her son was doing Friday night, she said.
Truesdale was not part of Evans’ circle of friends, Mrs. Evans said. She
did not know why he would pick a fight with her son.
Jay Evans never started fights and tried to avoid them, she said.
According to police reports, witnesses said Evans did not fight back in the
assault. One witness said Evans was not looking at Truesdale when he was hit.
“I think if he thought he was going to be attacked he would have fought
back — he was combat-trained,” his mother said. “Whatever he (Truesdale) said
was of no importance, and Jay turned to walk away.”
Mrs. Evans said she isn’t vengeful but wants Truesdale to go to jail.
“Jay went to Desert Storm and could have died,” Evans said. “Then he comes
home to Tunkhannock and is murdered? It’s horrible.”
Jay Evans III