Kelvin Lanier Evans apparently had a chance to take a plea deal and serve around five years in prison, but he said no. Now the 40-year-old is headed to trial over the theft of unreleased Beyoncé music and other valuables from a rented SUV parked right near Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
While giving his testimony during the trial that took place in March 2026, Evans told the judge face to face that he is ready for the trial straight away. Selection of jury will start on Monday, 11th of May in Fulton County. In case he gets convicted, prosecution will make efforts to put him behind bars for six years.
The whole thing goes back to a bold smash-and-grab on July 8, 2025. Two members of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour team choreographer Christopher Grant and dancer Diandre Blue had parked a 2024 Jeep Wagoneer in a Krog Street parking garage. They were gone less than an hour. When they came back, a rear window was shattered and two suitcases were missing.
A tweet from X.
Inside those bags were MacBook Pros, pricey AirPods Max headphones, high-end clothes, and most importantly multiple hard drives and USB sticks packed with unreleased, watermarked Beyoncé tracks, tour set lists, production notes, footage details, and other sensitive material. Some of those files still haven’t turned up.
Evans was linked to the criminal act by video evidence captured by the police, Flock cameras, a car of Hyundai Elantra associated with Evans, and signal information from the stolen electronic devices. Evans was arrested late in August 2025, pleaded not guilty in January 2026, and was eventually indicted by a Fulton County grand jury.
In today’s streaming world, unreleased music from someone like Beyoncé can be worth millions. A leak can wreck carefully planned album rollouts, tank first-week numbers, and flood the internet with bootleg versions that eat into official sales. For an artist who controls every detail of her releases like Beyoncé does, losing watermarked material from a massive tour like Cowboy Carter was a major security nightmare.
The story blew up online. Social media, especially X, was full of court updates mixed with memes about Blue Ivy “taking care of business” and fans jokingly begging for leaks from “Act III.” Some people argued six years is too steep for a car break-in, while others said it’s justified because of the massive value of the stolen intellectual property. What started as a simple theft quickly turned into national entertainment.
