Prosecution · State Attorney's Office

Eddie Evans

Prosecution attorney who argued the State's positions on jury instructions and trial procedure across four Tallahassee murder-case trials.

Mentioned Garcia–Magbanua Magbanua Retrial Charlie Adelson Donna Adelson

164 lines · 4 trials

About

Evans is a thread of continuity through every trial in the case, which makes his recorded arguments a practical way to follow how the State's legal theories were framed and re-framed over six years. Because his participation sits almost entirely in the jury instruction proceedings, the record of his work shows how the questions of principal liability, conspiracy, and solicitation — the legal heart of a murder-for-hire prosecution with multiple defendants — were argued and resolved before each jury deliberated.

Across Trials

Evans's role is remarkably stable across the four trials: prosecution counsel handling instruction and procedure, never witness examination. What changes is the scope of the record and the posture of his arguments. In the 2019 Garcia–Magbanua trial, his participation is by far the most extensive, spanning multiple instruction conferences and, distinctively, the deliberation-stage jury questions — where he objected to the court's proposed answers on principal liability and was overruled, and later proposed accepting a verdict on one defendant while giving the same jury an Allen charge on the other. In the later three trials his recorded appearances narrow to the charge conferences themselves. His positions also shift with the changing posture of each case: in the 2022 Magbanua retrial he fought to keep second-degree murder and manslaughter available as lesser included offenses, while by the 2025 Donna Adelson trial he was affirmatively waiving those same lesser includeds on the murder count. Similarly, the independent-act instruction he called unsupported in the earliest trial was removed by agreement in the retrial. The through-line is his handling of technical instruction disputes; his broad, generically worded principals position is documented in the 2019 and 2025 records.

Trial Record (0)

GM Garcia–Magbanua Sep 26, 2019 – Oct 11, 2019

Trial Summary

Appeared for the State on procedural and jury-instruction matters in the Garcia/Magbanua trial, arguing the State's positions during the instruction conferences and the deliberation-stage jury questions on days 10 and 11.

KM Magbanua Retrial May 18, 2022 – May 27, 2022

Trial Summary

Represented the prosecution at the charge conference, arguing the state's positions on jury instruction disputes before Judge Wheeler.

CA Charlie Adelson Oct 26, 2023 – Nov 6, 2023

Trial Summary

Prosecutor Eddie Evans participated in the charge conference, where Judge Everett repeatedly asked him for the State's position on language in the proposed jury instructions.

DA Donna Adelson Aug 22, 2025 – Sep 4, 2025

Trial Summary

Appeared for the prosecution in the charge conference and jury instruction colloquy, arguing state positions on principal liability instruction language, verdict form formatting, and the waiver of lesser-included offenses on count one.