Waynesville resident Dylan Brian Green, 25, center, pleaded guilty on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022 in Haywood County Superior Court to first-degree murder for the July 18, 2019, death of nine-month-old Chloe Evans. (Photo courtesy of Office of District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch)
A Haywood County man who killed a baby left in his care will spend the remainder of his life in prison, District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said.
Waynesville resident Dylan Brian Green, 25, pleaded guilty on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022 in Haywood County Superior Court to first-degree murder for the July 18, 2019, death of nine-month-old Chloe Evans. Green faced a possible death penalty if convicted in a jury trial.
Chloe died of blunt-force trauma. A medical examiner also found a ligature mark around her neck. The biological mother had gone to work, leaving Green as the child’s caregiver. He was the sole person in the home when her injuries occurred.
“It was a difficult decision to accept a plea,” Welch said. “This was an innocent child at the beginning of her life viciously and senselessly killed.”
Welch said Chloe’s grandmother (on her biological father’s side), the primary family member involved in the case, requested Green receive life in prison.
Additionally, with school records on file that indicate Green’s IQ score is in the 60 to 70 range, jurors, if the case had reached the death-penalty phase, would have faced questions about his intellectual capacity.
North Carolina’s statute defines “significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning” as “intelligence quotient of 70 or below.”
A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibits the death penalty for intellectually disabled defendants. “We think it’s a just resolution,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Jeff Jones, who co-prosecuted the case with Kate Robinette, said.
Haywood County Sheriff’s Office, Matthew Shell, Dustin Toon, Lance Easton and Tony Cope, handled the investigation. Senior Resident Judge Bill Coward imposed the prison sentence.
- Office of District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch release
