Bar tab identifies man accused of nightclub killing, Florida cops say. He’s sentenced

A man accused of a fatal shooting outside a Florida nightclub was identified by his open bar tab and fled to Lithuania, authorities said.

He’s now been sentenced to 35 years in prison, the Florida State Attorney’s Office for the 20th Judicial Circuit announced Jan. 9.

Alexander Evans, now 34, was convicted of second-degree murder with a firearm, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery on a person 65 or older in connection with an altercation at a popular nightclub in Naples, officials said.

Evans’ attorney declined to comment to McClatchy News on the case but said there was no relation between Evans and the victims.

The late evening of Oct. 8, 2022, Evans’ group at Cavo Lounge got into an argument with a group sitting at a table next to them, deputies with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a probable cause affidavit.

Witnesses said a man pulled out a gun and pointed it towards the group and a security officer, who then retreated, deputies said. A man is captured on camera pistol-whipping a 71-year-old woman in the head, causing her to fall, according to investigators.

Deputies said the altercation moved outside the club, where one of the men fell to the ground and another man, later identified as Evans, stood over him and shot him, according to witnesses and videos.

Evans and one of his friends are then accused of fleeing the scene.

But Evans had opened a tab at the bar with his credit card, which helped identify him, prosecutors said. Law enforcement searched the name on the card and said they found photos that matched up with the man witnesses saw in the shooting.

After the incident, Evans’ ex-girlfriend said he came back to their apartment and told her five people had jumped him and he had shot one of them, according to the affidavit.

He used her debit card to buy a plane ticket to Lithuania and left the country, but she said he would be coming back to Fort Lauderdale the evening of Oct. 12.

When he landed, deputies said they escorted him off the plane and let him know he had an arrest warrant out of Collier County.

“He advised that he was very willing to be escorted back to Collier County where he would be arrested,” a deputy wrote in the booking sheet.

He was shackled and driven to southwest Florida for prosecution, officials said.