Man Who Stole Beyoncé’s Unreleased Music Pleads Guilty, Gets Two-Year Prison Sentence

An Atlanta man accused of stealing unreleased Beyoncé music has pleaded guilty just as his trial was about to begin, closing a case that had been hanging over the singer’s Cowboy Carter era for months.

Kelvin Evans, 40, entered the plea Tuesday, May 12, in Fulton County Superior Court. He admitted to entering an automobile and criminal trespass after prosecutors said he broke into a rental car tied to Beyoncé’s choreographer, Christopher Grant. The judge sentenced him to two years in prison, followed by three years of probation, a punishment that lands well below the six-year term he could have faced if convicted.

Evans had been arrested last summer after authorities said he targeted Grant’s car while the choreographer was in Atlanta ahead of a stop on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour. According to Grant, the stolen luggage included laptops, luxury clothing and hard drives containing unreleased Beyoncé material, the detail that turned a routine theft case into something much more closely watched by the music industry.

At the live-streamed hearing, Evans’ lawyer framed the plea as a way for his client to move forward. “He is looking forward to putting this relatively large part of his life behind him and hoping for a future where he can make money legitimately and be part of society like the rest of us,” the lawyer told the judge.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, said they played surveillance footage they believed showed the break-in and would have used it at trial. They had insisted they were prepared to win the case, but said they agreed to the plea deal to avoid any “uncertainty” over the outcome. One prosecutor acknowledged that while the state had “a very strong case,” some of the evidence was circumstantial enough that “a reasonable jury may have found a defendant not guilty.”

The case sat in an uncomfortable pocket between celebrity security and ordinary property crime. Beyoncé’s name gave it obvious weight, but the charges themselves were narrower: entering an automobile and criminal trespass. Still, the allegation that hard drives containing unreleased recordings were among the items taken made the case unusually sensitive, especially with the Cowboy Carter tour actively unfolding around it.

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