The story of Katie Evans, a mother of six from Santa Clarita who was killed by a drunk driver in 2017, is being remembered by her husband ahead of the two-year anniversary of her death.

In partnership with The Way Out Recovery SCV, Jacob Evans told KHTS about the tragic events of that night as part of his ongoing efforts to publicly speak out against driving under the influence. 

Sarah and Hannah Evans.

“I want to share my story because I want people to understand just how devastating it is when something like this happens,” Evans said. “It completely ruined my life to that point, and there have been some good things that have happened since, but I don’t want anyone to have to go through the sort of suffering and pain that my family has gone through.”

Related: Jacob Evans Looks Back On Losing His Wife In DUI Crash, Shares Message For Driver

On Oct. 6, 2017, 37-year-old Katie was driving home from visiting her premature 2-month-old twin girls at the UCLA hospital NICU when she was struck by a drunk driver on Golden Valley Road in Santa Clarita.

“To understand what happened that night, you need to understand that the girls were in the NICU for a long period of time, and Katie was going down and visiting them every single day,” Evans said. “She called me around 11 (that night). She was a little frustrated with some of the things going on with the girls, and I told her, ‘Look, you’re really tired. We’ve been going through a lot. Why don’t you just come home and we can deal with this tomorrow?’”

When Katie still hadn’t arrived home by midnight, Evans tried calling her cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail. 

He had no idea that around that same time, first responders were at the scene of a three-car crash less than a mile away from his home, where open containers of alcohol had been discovered inside the vehicle of the “primary person,” who was later identified as then 21-year-old Alexia Cina.

The scene of the fatal crash on Golden Valley Road.

Toxicology reports indicated that Cina had a blood alcohol content of almost three times the legal limit, and she had hit the curb with her car and struck oncoming traffic, killing Katie in the resulting crash, according to law enforcement officials.  

“I decided to retrace my steps, and it was only a mile from the house where they had the whole road taped off and they wouldn’t let me through,” Evans recalled. “They wouldn’t tell it to me straight, but I was able to put all the pieces together and figure out that, unfortunately, that was her right there, a mile from her house, killed by a drunk driver.”

Evans continued, “That was 2:30 in the morning, and I went home. I wasn’t going to sleep obviously, and I just thought, ‘What am I going to tell the kids?’ A part of me wanted to wake them up and let them know, but I thought, no, let’s let them have one last good night of sleep.”

Friends came over to offer Evans support and stayed with him through the night. It wasn’t until about 5:30 a.m. when Coroner’s officials arrived at the house to confirm what Evans already knew. 

Alexia Cina, the drunk driver responsible for the crash that killed Katie Evans.

“It took them a long time because they couldn’t positively identify the body,” he said. “It had been so mangled in the accident. They never even let me see the body.” 

On July 6, 2018, Cina pled no contest to the charges against her in relation to the fatal DUI crash, and she was later sentenced to 10 years in state prison, according to officials. 

Evans recalled listening to Katie’s father’s victim statement that day in the courtroom, where Katie’s family spoke before the judge, Cina and her family. 

“He talked about Katie and how he knew that Katie loved her, the driver of that car,” Evans said. “He said, ‘You may wonder how I know that. The answer is because Katie loved everyone.’ And that’s just who she was. She cared about everyone, she loved everyone, she was kind to everyone, and so it’s a tragic loss that, in a world where there’s so much intolerances and so much frustration and anger, that someone who loved so much, so unconditionally and so freely isn’t here anymore.” 

Evans continued that it’s the way a person handles adversity that truly defines them, and encouraged those facing adversity of their own to use it as an opportunity to grow and “become something better” than they were before. 

Jacob and Katie Evans with their four boys.

“Regardless of whether it’s drunk driving or something else, I just want the kids to commit to, when they do run into adversity in their lives, I want you guys to commit that you’re going to handle it the right way, that you’re going to become a better person for it and that you are going to try to make the world a better place,” he said.

Although Evans and his wife had never drank alcohol in their lives, and may have thought that alcohol wasn’t “their business” as a result, their family was changed forever because of drunk driving.

“Alcohol is everybody’s business. Don’t let your friends drink and drive. Don’t let somebody leave a party drunk, because you never know. It might be someone you know that’s life is impacted forever,” Evans said. “Have a plan. Don’t drink and drive.” 

To hear more from Jacob Evans, see the following links for a special three-part series by KHTS and The Way Out Recovery SCV called “Respect Life: Don’t Drink and Drive” – Jacob Evans’ Story. For Part One, click here. For Part Two, click here. For Part Three, click here.

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