NORRISTOWN — A Philadelphia man who authorities said tried to abduct a teenage girl from the Willow Grove Park Mall in Abington Township was convicted by a jury of a felony charge of false imprisonment of a minor.
Khalilh Jafar Evans, 44, of the 1500 block of Kinsdale Street, showed no visible reaction as the verdict was announced by the Montgomery County Court jury that heard two days of testimony and watched surveillance camera footage that recorded Evans’ interaction with a 14-year-old girl at the mall about 7 p.m. on July 12, 2023.
A female relative of Evans wept as the verdict was announced by the jury of 10 women and two men after more than six hours of deliberations.
Judge Wendy G. Rothstein deferred sentencing so that court officials can complete a background investigation report about Evans, who will undergo drug, alcohol and mental health evaluations. The judge revoked Evans’ bail and he will remain in the county jail pending sentencing.
Evans faces a possible maximum sentence of 5 to 10 years in prison on the charge. However, state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.
“I was never guilty. I was always innocent and I’m innocent now,” Evans responded to a reporter’s questions as sheriff’s deputies escorted him from the courtroom after the verdict was announced.
Asked if he had a message for the jury Evans responded, “You all convicted an innocent man.”
Evans did not testify during the trial.
With the charge against Evans, Assistant District Attorney Caroline Rose Goldstein argued Evans restrained the teenage girl to substantially interfere with her liberty.
“She’s a kid who doesn’t understand what’s happening. She’s a kid and she’s scared,” Goldstein argued during her closing statement to jurors, referring to videotaped footage of the incident.
The girl testified she observed Evans as she was on an escalator going from the second level to the first level of the mall. The girl, who grew emotional at one point and a comfort dog was permitted to sit at her feet in the witness box, testified she was met at the bottom of the escalator by Evans who introduced himself as “Alex,” told her he was 25 and asked her to walk with him, extending his arm in an effort to escort her.
The girl testified she told Evans she was 13.
“The suspect was telling the victim that he wanted to put his phone number into her phone,” Abington detectives Jeffrey Anderson and Lieutenant Steve Fink wrote in the arrest affidavit.
The girl managed to use her cellphone to secretly take a photo of Evans as he gripped her arm, pinned her arm underneath his and led her across the mall, according to testimony.
“At one point, the victim tried to break free of the suspect’s grasp and he tightened his grip, continuing to walk her through the mall in a direction she did not want to go,” Anderson and Fink alleged.
The girl testified that when Evans loosened his grip she pulled her arm away from him, stepped back and then darted away.
Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Danton Lee Moyer, the girl testified Evans didn’t threaten her, didn’t inflict any injuries and never said anything sexual to her.
“An awkward social interaction is not a crime,” Moyer argued to the jury during his closing statement. “Being odd, being weird, it’s not a crime and it’s certainly not false imprisonment. There’s no threat of violence in this case. What we have in this case is a jump to conclusion.”
Moyer suggested authorities rushed to judgment, that the 45-second interaction was not long enough to amount to false imprisonment and that prosecutors did not present sufficient evidence to support the charge.
“What we have here is not an awkward social interaction. Commonsense tells you this is different,” Goldstein responded as she referred to the surveillance video footage, suggesting that there was a substantial period that the girl was restrained against her will and that there is no set time limit for that under the law.
In court documents, detectives suggested Evans appeared to be working in concert with a second male with whom he arrived at the mall. The second male walked in front of Evans and the girl and after the girl broke free, Evans and the second male left the mall and entered a vehicle together, according to court documents.
The second male was identified but he was not charged with any crimes.
After the girl reported the incident, Abington police shared photos of the suspect with local media to seek the public’s help to identify him.
Evans voluntarily turned himself in to authorities the morning after the incident.
At one point during the jury’s deliberations, jurors indicated they were deadlocked. After receiving additional legal instructions from the judge to continue deliberations, one female juror refused to deliberate further. Rothstein excused that juror, who was replaced on the panel by an alternate female juror who then joined the deliberations.
Moyer objected to placing the alternate juror on the panel.
