By Jesse PhillipsOn the morning of March 23, 1991, Evans, Pfeiffer, and Waddell arranged the Pfeiffer’s trailer to look as if a robbery had taken place, stacking electronic equipment near the back door of the trailer.
After the trailer was arranged, Waddell and Evans went to Waddell’s house to steal her father’s gun. Evans, Thomas, and Waddell went to the fair that evening, but later left to go to the trailer. Thomas and Waddell dropped Evans off at the trailer, where he was to wait for Alan Pfeiffer to arrive and then shoot him. Evans arranged for Thomas and Waddell to pick him up at the trailer one to two hours after they dropped him off.
On March 23, 1991, Alan Pfeiffer left work at 7:30 p.m. for the thirty-minute drive to the trailer. Neighbors testified that gunshots were heard coming from the Pfeiffer’s trailer between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. After picking up Evans at the trailer, Evans, Thomas, and Waddell went back to the fair, where they met up with Connie Pfeiffer. Early the next morning, police found Alan Pfeiffer’s body on the living room floor with three gunshot wounds – two in the head and one in the spine.
After an investigation in which no arrests were made, the case grew cold and was eventually closed. In 1997, six years after the murder, the case was reopened and the investigation focused on Evans, Connie Pfeiffer, Waddell, and Thomas. Thomas first agreed to cooperate with police and wore a wire to get incriminating statements from Waddell. Waddell was arrested, and when presented with the tape-recorded statements, she also agreed to cooperate with the police. As a result of the statements of Thomas and Waddell, Evans and Connie Pfeiffer were implicated in the murder and arrested.
Source: About.com (Crime and Punishment)
As a result of the trial, Evans was found guilty of murder. According to Florida state law, if six jury members agree, the jury recommends the death penalty to the judge, who makes the final sentencing determination. Paul Evans was sentenced to death, and justice was served for Alan Pfeiffer.
Paul Evans, convicted of murder by due process beyond reasonable doubt, pictured here with Judge Martinez who protected his life. Not pictured is Alan Pfeiffer, killed by Evans for cash
Fortunately for Paul Evans, convicted murders have advocates. In this case, the advocate came in the form of U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez, who sees a problem in Florida State law and decided to interject a new standard for juries in death penalty sentencing, and retroactively apply that arbitrary standard to Paul Evans’ case.
Martinez feels that jurors, in addition to recommending the death penalty, needed to have provided additional justification for their recommendation of death, which he did not feel they provided in the Evan’s case. It’s not enough that the jury found Evans guilty of pre-meditated murder beyond reasonable doubt. The judge wanted further proof of “aggravating circumstances” which preempted the jury to choose death, despite the fact that Florida law makes no requirement.
In the perverted mind of an activist judge, the courts duty is not to carry out the due process of justice, but to add an extra layer of protection for the criminals proven guilty as a result of that due process. This, of course, makes justice nearly impossible.
“It is the law in this country that not everyone who commits murder is eligible for the death penalty,” attorney Bill Matthewman said. “It’s only the worst of the worst.”
Apparently, in the eyes of our justice system, a person who has reached a state of depravity in which he kills for cash is not the “worst of the worst.” If there is no place on death row for heartless, cold-blooded murder-for-cash villains, then there’s no room on death row for anybody.
Judicial activism has left Paul Evans living comfortably in jail, and Alan Pfeiffer calling for justice from the grave. Effectively incentivizing murder by lessening its punishment, the blood of future victims will be on our courts hands for its refusal to fulfill its duty to punish evil.
