The man who reportedly terrorized diners at Longhorn on New Year’s Eve got credit for time served Friday.
Darnell R. Evans, 47, was initially charged with six counts of making terroristic threats and acts. He’s been in custody since early January after patrons said he entered the restaurant with a pistol and an AR-15-style rifle and ordered them to leave.
But the video that circulated on social media – of a man dressed in black full tactical gear holding two guns inside the Washington Road restaurant – “doesn’t tell the complete story,” prosecutor Justin Mullis told the court Friday.
Evans is the inmate who asked pubic defender Rodrequez Burnett to hand him a toilet paper wrapper, Mullis said. The wrapper, considered contraband, got Burnett charged with a felony, but District Attorney Jared Williams later dropped the charge.
After 11 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, Evans had gone to Longhorn to pick up his son and girlfriend, both of whom worked there, Mullis said.
Several patrons remained inside, and Evans was “told to get those people out,” he said. When they didn’t comply, Evans retrieved the guns from his vehicle and returned, telling them “everyone has two minutes to leave,” said Mullis.
Multiple witnesses told police they were terrified, according to prior reports.
Evans claimed to work for the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, but made “no overt threats” and did not point the guns, Mullis said.
Evans was not indicted for terroristic threats and acts. Instead he was charged in March with six counts of impersonating an officer.
He has a limited criminal record, with some misdemeanors and “a lot of weapons charges, but no convictions,” Mullis said.
Defense attorney Lucy Bell said overall the crowd in the restaurant had been “somewhat rowdy,” and Evans has spent the last six months in G-pod, home of the most violent offenders at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center.
Richmond County Superior Court Judge Amanda Heath agreed with the plea agreement and gave Evans the six months in jail he’s already served and the remainder of five years on probation.
Heath said Evans is not to possess or have access to weapons while on probation and no contact with Longhorn or the indictment’s six victims.
