A former Davie Fire Rescue lieutenant who was accused of battering his wife hours before she was found dead in Coral Springs last year will not be charged with any crime stemming from that day.
Jeffrey Evans, 43, of Coral Springs, was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge after an argument with his wife became physical, according to a probable cause affidavit. Their fight on the morning of Aug. 25 about 11:30 a.m. was recorded on Ring surveillance video, which showed Evans punching Jessica Lloyd, 38, and grabbing her by her hair as he tried to take his laptop from her, according to a State Attorney’s Office memo dated Feb. 23.
Just before 9 p.m. that night in August, Evans called police and said his wife was having a “mental break” and needed help, the affidavit said. Minutes later, another person called to report hearing a woman scream, “My husband is trying to kill me!”
Evans told police when they arrived that Lloyd ran from their home, screaming that he was trying to kill her, and that he saw her fall on a sidewalk, according to an investigator’s report from the Medical Examiner’s Office. While Evans spoke to police, he and the officers “heard a splash in the canal” behind the home on Northwest 15th Court.
Lloyd was found facedown, partially submerged in 17 inches of water. She was pronounced dead at Broward Health Coral Springs.
Lloyd had multiple blunt force injuries and bruises to her head, neck, torso, arms and legs that were healed at different levels, including fractures in her ribs and left upper jaw, an autopsy report said. Toxicology tests showed positive for cocaine and some prescription antidepressant medications.
The associate medical examiner who performed Lloyd’s autopsy determined that she died as a result of drowning, and her manner of death was undetermined.
Prosecutors declined to file the misdemeanor battery charge stemming from the fight earlier that day because there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction.
“Because the victim is now deceased, the State has no evidence or witnesses to rebut this account by the defendant,” the State Attorney’s Office’s memo declining the charge said.
Prosecutors move forward with cases, even when victims cannot cooperate, when they have independent evidence to prove the charges, Assistant State Attorney Stefanie Newman, the prosecutor in charge of the Domestic Violence Unit, said in a statement shared with the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The State Attorney’s Office was never formally presented a homicide case, Paula McMahon, spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office, said in an email Friday.
“If the investigators at the police department believed they had probable cause to make an arrest or file a charge related to the death of Jessica Lloyd, they would have formally presented it to our office for review,” McMahon said. “No homicide case has been formally presented to our office at this time. There is no statute of limitations for any unresolved homicide. We remain ready, willing and able to formally review any evidence that detectives want to present now or in the future.”
Coral Springs Police in an email sent to the Sun Sentinel on Friday night said their investigation of Lloyd’s death is closed.
“The Coral Springs Police Department conducted a long and thorough investigation, as we do with all cases,” the statement said. “Detectives did meet with the State Attorney’s Office, but we did not recommend murder charges.”
Evans’ defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
Evans was terminated from Davie Fire Rescue in March 2025, a letter of separation shows. He had been unable to perform his job since November 2023 due to prolonged medical issues.
