Infant, mother slain

Common-law husband charged

October 28, 2005

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - A Wasilla man confessed Thursday in Palmer District Court that he strangled his common-law wife and their 7-week-old son two nights earlier in their home.

&#8220There's no point in appointing an attorney,” said Christopher A. Kevan, 24, who was being arraigned Thursday on two counts of first-degree murder for strangling Brandie Burns, 26, and Ashton Lee Burns at their 3801 E. Bogard Road apartment. &#8220I take responsibility for things I do.”

District Judge William Estelle asked Kevan if he knew that an attorney could help him. &#8220It doesn't matter,” Kevan said. &#8220I did it.”

The couple was at home with their baby Tuesday evening when Burns received a phone call from her mother, Connie Burns, who lives in Georgia, according to charging documents filed by Timothy Hunyor, an investigator for Alaska State Troopers. Kevan and Burns argued and Kevan started to drink. According to what Kevan told troopers, their argument may have been about their son. He said he believed someone else was the baby's father, he told troopers.

Kevan told troopers he got upset and out of control and, at about 7:30, strangled Brandie with his hands. He then strangled baby Ashton, who was lying on the couch. He laid the mother and her son on the bed, he told troopers, and then laid down next to them and fell asleep.

When he awoke, Kevan told troopers, he took a steak knife and unsuccessfully tried to kill himself by stabbing himself in the chest and trying to cut the vein in the right side of his neck. At daylight Wednesday, he drove to a nearby lake on Seward Meridian Parkway and tried to drown himself by lying in cold water. After that, he went home, took a shower, changed his clothes and called his father, Michael Kevan, at about 10:30 a.m., telling him he needed a ride.

When Michael Kevan arrived at the apartment, he told troopers, Chris came out and pulled up his shirt to show him four or five &#8220poke marks” on his chest and a scratch on the right side of his neck. Chris told his father he wanted to show him something.

When he asked his son where Brandie was, documents stated, Chris walked him to the bedroom.

&#8220She's over there,” he told his dad and pulled the blanket back off Brandie's body.

When Michael asked where the baby was, Chris pulled the blanket back further to reveal Ashton's body.

&#8220I said ‘Chris, you killed them,' and he looked right at me when I said it,” Michael Kevan said in a phone interview Thursday. &#8220I was sick. My grandson and Brandie dead in bed. I told him to sit down, and he did what I told him to do.”

Michael Kevan said he called his brother, who is a retired sheriff, told him what happened and asked him to call 911.

&#8220I'm pissed about the whole thing,” Michael Kevan said. &#8220The whole family is just devastated. And he had no remorse. He had to be on drugs.”

Michael Kevan said his son has had problems with drugs and alcohol since he was about 17, to the point where he disowned his son a long time ago. But Brandie was another story.

&#8220We loved her,” he said. &#8220I believe she was just one of those who wanted someone to love her. She was a really sweet gal.”

Michael Kevan said he and his wife, Ida, Christopher's stepmother, were so concerned about Burns' safety that they bought her an airplane ticket to Georgia to be with her mother, out of harm's way. Christopher was abusive to her - not yet violent, he said, &#8220but you could see it coming.”

Burns returned in a few weeks, Michael Kevan said, although they never learned where she got the money to come back.

Burns didn't contact them, according to court documents.

Tina Nethery, a close friend of Burns, said Christopher Kevan was very abusive, mentally and verbally. Nethery said she only met him about three times, but Burns told her of the abuse.

&#8220She should have had a chance to be a mom,” Nethery said. &#8220Brandie's mom came up to get her and bring her back to Georgia. Connie came up, but Brandie thought it would be mean to take his son from him. All she ever did was love Chris, and he knew it, too.”

According to Nethery, Burns was ecstatic when she learned she was pregnant, in part because she had medical problems that might have precluded having children.

Kevan began accusing Burns of infidelity while she was still pregnant with Ashton. Ida Kevan told troopers that her stepson saw an ultrasound and said the baby did not look like him.

&#8220I don't know why he thought that,” Nethery said of Kevan's belief that Ashton was not his child. &#8220The reason she put her name on the birth certificate is that she was afraid he would take him from her.”

Nethery paused and hung her head.

&#8220He sure did,” she said, weeping.

Nethery showed a photo of the couple and another one of their baby. In the photo, Burns is pregnant and beaming as she leans her 5-foot, 3-inch frame to fit under Kevan's chin. At 6 feet, 4 inches tall and 210 pounds, he had to lean down to get close to her face.

&#8220Ashton was only 10 pounds,” Nethery said. &#8220He was only 5 pounds when he was born.”

Baby Ashton was in the hospital about three weeks ago, according to Michael Kevan, although he didn't learn about it until Wednesday. He said Burns told people she fell while holding the baby, but that he knows now that his son hurt Ashton. Officials with the state Office of Children's Services on Thursday said they are working on the case, but did not yet have any answers for the media.

&#8220If I had known, I would have stepped in,” Michael Kevan said. &#8220I can't be sure, but I think she lied to protect him. That baby didn't have a chance, did he?”

Kevan's bail at arraignment was set at $100,000 cash only and a court-approved third-party custodian as he sat in court in his hospital gown. His pre-indictment hearing is scheduled for this morning at 10. He will be taken to Anchorage Correctional Complex when he has recovered enough to travel, but remained at Valley Hospital, under guard, on Thursday morning.

The bodies of Ashton and Burns were taken to the state medical examiner's office in Anchorage Wednesday night.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.