William Evers becomes three-strike felon facing 25+ years in plea deal

By Dave Brooksher, Contributing Writer | February 25, 2022

William Evers smiling in the back seat of a patrol vehicle with both legs restrained Nov. 4, 2021.

UKIAH, 2/25/22 — William Allen Evers pleaded guilty to assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon this morning in connection with a May 12, 2021 incident in which he fired a gun while fleeing the scene of a burglary in Elk. That’s a violent felony, and Evers has two prior strike convictions, so when he returns to court for sentencing next month prosecutors say he does so as a three-strike felon facing 25-years-to-life in prison. Over roughly nine months on the run Evers racked up 19 other felony charges, and Judge Keith Faulder dismissed all of them today as part of the plea.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) first posted images of Evers to social media Feb. 10, 2021, in an effort to identify him as a suspect in some residential burglaries in remote areas of Low Gap Road and Pine Ridge Road. Evers continued to show up in security camera footage from burglaries up and down the coast, prompting an ongoing manhunt and numerous search efforts, but he evaded capture until Nov. 4. Prosecutors charged him with the attempted murder of Deputy Thomas Kelly, grand theft of a firearm, destruction of private property, and 15 counts of burglary. None of that stuck.

But Evers, 40, has a 2007 burglary conviction from Humboldt County and a 2014 conviction for making criminal threats in Shasta County. He also admitted to firing his weapon during Kelly’s pursuit on May 12 in an ethically questionable jailhouse interview conducted before Evers could talk with a lawyer. He was represented by the public defender’s office, but Mendocino County Public Defender Jeffrey Aaron declined to comment in an email this afternoon on how that coverage may have impacted the outcome of the case.