Murder suspect indicted

Father also facing assault charges

November 6, 2005

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - A Palmer grand jury on Thursday indicted a man accused of killing his girlfriend and their infant son, charging him with their murders and also for assaulting the baby about three weeks before he died.

Friday's indictment charged Christopher A. Kevan, 24, of Wasilla, with first- and second-degree murder for allegedly strangling Brandie Burns, 26, in their Bogard Road apartment on Oct. 25. The indictment also charged Kevan with first- and second-degree murder for allegedly strangling their 7-week-old son, Ashton Burns, afterward.

Kevan told Alaska State Troopers he had been drinking and arguing with Burns that evening.

The indictment leveled first- and second-degree assault charges against Kevan as well, for allegedly injuring Ashton on Oct. 1.

The Office of Children's Services in Wasilla received an official report of harm about the incident, according to Claudia Shanley, speaking for OCS. Although she couldn't say who made the report, Shanley said the case was given the highest priority, and within two hours a social worker interviewed the parents.

The injuries were consistent with the story Kevan and Burns told, but the social worker referred them to an early intervention and infant learning program at Mat-Su Services for Children and Adults on Oct. 3.

Brandie was treated for cervical cancer when she was 16, Connie Burns, Brandie's mother, said Friday, and never used birth control because she was told she was unable to have children.

&#8220She was so high on happiness at her miracle baby,” Burns said. &#8220And she thought she was giving Chris the greatest gift in the world with that baby.”

According to Connie Burns, Kevan didn't treat that gift well. She said he deliberately tripped Brandie while she was holding Ashton - her daughter fell and the baby's skull cracked. Kevan refused to drive the baby to the hospital, Burns said, so Brandie took the baby to the hospital, where Ashton was kept overnight.

Burns said she learned only after the slayings about the black eye Kevan gave Brandie when she was five months pregnant. She said Kevan's father and stepmother bought Brandie a plane ticket to Georgia when she was eight months pregnant because Kevan threatened to kill her, and they wanted her and the baby to be safe.

But Kevan called Brandie Burns two weeks after she arrived at her mother's house and told her that he'd cleaned the house, prepared the baby's room, put roses on the table for her and bought her a plane ticket back to Alaska.

&#8220She said, ‘Momma, he misses me. Maybe things will change after the baby is born.' But she went back and he was just as mean as before,” Burns said.

Burns said she called her daughter about 5 p.m. Oct. 25, to tell her she had the money to change a plane ticket so Brandie and Ashton could fly out to Georgia.

&#8220I told her ‘I want you and Ashton out of there before something happens to you or the baby,'” Burns said. &#8220Then she put Ashton on the phone, and I could swear I heard that little baby say, ‘I love you, Granny Connie.' Two hours later, Chris killed them.”

After Burns and Ashton died that evening, Kevan moved their bodies from the couch where they had been slain to a bed, according to statements he gave trooper investigators. Kevan said he lay down next to the bodies and went to sleep. When he awoke around daybreak, a trooper affidavit stated, Kevan tried to kill himself with a knife - first by &#8220poking” himself in the chest, then by trying &#8220to find the blood vein in his neck,” after which he drove to a nearby lake and lay down in cold water.

After he failed for a third time to kill himself, Kevan told the investigators, he drove home, took a shower and changed his clothes. Kevan then called his father and his uncle, who alerted troopers.

A funeral for Brandie and Ashton was held Thursday at 4 p.m. in Georgia, Burns said.

&#8220I haven't had time to mourn,” she said. &#8220It's taken everything I've got to not fall apart.”

Kevan is being held at Anchorage Correctional Complex West, according to Debbie Miller, acting superintendent. Miller wouldn't say specifically why Kevan was moved, but she said it could be for a &#8220multitude of reasons.”

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.