A man serving a life sentence for killing an assistant district attorney (ADA) for Middlesex County in 1980 has been denied parole.
Arnold Evans was convicted on May 22, 1981 of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Edward T. Bigham III and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Additionally, Evans was convicted on counts of armed assault with the intent to rob and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was sentenced up to 20 and up to 10 years for those crimes, respectively, to be served concurrently with his life sentence.
Bigham was killed on Oct. 2, 1980, at around 1 a.m., according to the Parole Board’s decision on the case dated Nov. 17.
Bigham had been in his car that had broken down along the Charles River, near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. He was with another Middlesex ADA at the time, a narrative on the case read.
Evans noticed Bigham’s broken down car and pulled up behind him in a large white car with two other people. The group had been driving around the Boston area in search of someone to rob.
Evans walked up to the driver’s side of the car with a loaded gun and asked Bigham what time it was, while his accomplice came around the other side and tried to pull the other ADA out of the car.
Evans then shot Bigham in the chest from two feet away and ran from the scene. Bigham got out of the car and staggered a few feet before he collapsed, the narrative read. Though a nearby MIT guard tried emergency first aid, the 26-year-old was pronounced dead at a hospital that night.
The other ADA was taken to the Cambridge police station, where she reviewed a mugshot lineup, the narrative read. She was left with burns on her face from the gunpowder.
Evans was arrested about five months later in February 1981, according to the Parole Board decision. Police later learned that after fatally shooting Bigham, Evans and his accomplices went back to Boston and committed another robbery.
Evans told police he’d put the gun in Bigham’s face, demanded his wallet and that the gun “just went off in [Bigham’s] chest” when Bigham hit Evans’ hand as it was on the trigger.
However, in January 2024, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Commonwealth v. Mattis that sentencing people, ages 18 through 20 at the time of their offense, to life without the possibility of parole was unconstitutional and amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Massachusetts was the first state in the country to transform the law, experts said.
“Essentially, the brains of what we are calling ‘late adolescents’ or ‘emerging adults’ function very much like juveniles,” Northampton attorney Paul Rudof, one of the lawyers who successfully challenged life sentences for individuals aged 18 to 20, told The Republican.
There were 210 cases that fell into the Mattis decision across Massachusetts, including Evans.
Now 65-years-old, Evans has accused more than 190 disciplinary reports during his incarceration.
He has recently begun to engage in “meaningful programs,” the Board said. The Board noted he has serious medical issues and may have cognitive problems based on expert evaluations.
Evans also admitted to using drugs to cope with depression and medical symptoms and scored high on a risk assessment tool.
The Board recommended further testing to better understand his cognitive needs and believes he would benefit from programs to address addiction and mental health if he chooses to participate.
Board members heard from a mental health worker and Evans’ siblings in support of his parole, while the surviving victim
The court’s Mattis decision has been devastating for the families of those killed, as they are forced to relive the trauma, often going in front of the parole board and the incarcerated individual to make their own case.
Families have described the process as a “nightmare,” stating they feel betrayed and that the system is treating murderers as victims while their own pain is ignored. One family member during a previous hearing walked out, feeling as if his side wasn’t being fairly heard after the incarcerated individual was told they did a good job.
The parole board has so far granted freedom to more than 25 people, which is a significant majority of those who have had hearings and decisions released.
