A man accused of killing his co-worker at a Utah storage warehouse targeted the victim because he "messed with his stuff," authorities said.
On Dec. 29, a driver for Advantage Services said he overheard Nathan David Evans, 41, say he was going to a warehouse to kill his co-worker, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.
That evening, a co-worker left Evans and David Hinkebein alone at the storage facility. When he returned to work on Jan. 1, he saw Evans, but not Hinkebein.
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During his shift, the co-worker went near a back office and noticed bloody handprints on the wall and blood-stained carpet, prosecutors said.
"Mr. Evans made it clear that he did not want to talk about the mess when the co-worker confronted him about it," the DA's office said in a news release. "The next day, the same co-worker noticed the mess was still not cleaned up; he then spoke with Mr. Evans about it, who just told him that Mr. Hinkebein was done."
The co-worker reported the mess in the office and that Hinkebein was possibly dead.
Authorities were called to the warehouse on Jan. 3 for a welfare check and found a large amount of blood and Hinkebein's body. Detectives found a hammer next to a mini fridge that had blood on it and hair the same color as Evans’s, prosecutors said.
A garbage bag was also found with clothes that Evans typically wore covered in blood, authorities said. Hinkebein had at least 15 blunt injuries to the head, a medical examiner determined.
Evans has been charged with first-degree felony murder and one count of third-degree felony abuse or desecration of a human body.
"When people go to work they do not expect to be faced with violence. Workplace violence is intolerable and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law by this office. Our hearts go out to those who knew Mr. Hinkebein through his work with those experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake County," said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. "All persons accused of wrongdoing are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law."
Evans is being held in the Salt Lake County jail.
