WINFIELD - A man accused of killing a woman in Hurricane pleaded no contest to a first-degree murder charge Tuesday in Putnam Circuit Court.
Phillip Casto, 33, is accused of killing Jennifer Evans, 27, in her home in September 2015. A trial was scheduled for later this month.
Casto entered a Kennedy plea, which doesn't require a defendant to admit guilt. On March 30, a judge will decide if Casto will be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole or life in prison without parole.
Casto and Evans, who were married to other people at the time of her death, were having an affair, according to evidence presented by Putnam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Sorsaia.
When Evans broke off the affair, days before the slaying, Casto told friends that he was upset. Casto sent a message to a friend through the Kik messaging app, telling him that he was planning on leaving town and that his last action in Putnam County was "going to be brutal," the prosecutor said.
Sorsaia said, if the case had gone to trial, a jury would have heard evidence that Casto shot Evans in the head while she was on her knees in the house.
Surveillance video from a nearby house shows a car pulling into the parking area near the Evans residence at 4:38 p.m. on the day of the killing, then a person going up the stairs, according to a criminal complaint. The video shows the person leaving at 4:54 p.m. in the car, which is "consistent in appearance" with Casto's Honda Civic, investigators wrote in a criminal complaint.
During that time Evans texted her husband, Michael, telling him that Casto had shown up at the home, Sorsaia said. Michael Evans told her to call 911. He found her body when he returned home around 5:30 p.m.
Police have said Casto bought .40-caliber Glock handgun from a Hurricane pawn shop the day before Evans was killed. A clerk told investigators that Casto told them that he was purchasing it for "target practice."
After the shooting, Casto fled the state. He was arrested the day after the shooting by Massachusetts police at a shopping mall parking lot in Braintree, a Boston suburb. Officers found $14,000 in cash in a backpack Casto was carrying during the arrest. Casto also had trimmed his hair and beard in an attempt to disguise himself, Sorsaia said.
Putnam County detectives searched Casto's car soon after he was arrested. In the car, they found the gun Casto had purchased the day before Evans' death. They also sent the clothing Casto was wearing at the time of his arrest, and the gun and ammunition found in his car, to the West Virginia State Police lab. Lab workers reportedly found blood that was a close DNA match to Evans' on Casto's clothing and on the gun.
Casto had pleaded not guilty to the crime in August.
Casto's attorney, David Moye, told the judge during the hearing that Casto has a history of mental illness.
He has been evaluated twice by a psychiatrist, Moye said. Both times, the psychiatrist told Moye that Casto had the mental capacity to commit the crime.
Reach Ali Schmitz at ali.schmitz@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4843 or follow @SchmitzMedia on Twitter.