It’s been over a year since David Eason was charged with felony “Assault by Strangulation” for allegedly assaulting Jenelle Evans‘ son, Jace, and now the fired Teen Mom 2 dad is about to head to court to face a judge!
The Ashley can exclusively reveal that David is due in court next week to answer for the strangulation charge, in addition to a charge of child abuse pending against him for his alleged attack on Jace in September 2023. According to court records obtained by The Ashley, David is scheduled for a non-jury criminal court hearing in Superior Court on February 4. According to the CDM calendar, David’s hearing is listed as the “final” one, so he will be required to be present.
“Unless disposed of earlier, each felony case shall be calendared for a minimum of two specific case management week settings following the initiation date,” the North Carolina court website states. (The first hearing happened last year, which is why next week’s hearing is listed as the “final” one.)
Per North Carolina regulations, various things will be accomplished at this hearing, including confirmation that the State has filed its discovery disclosure certificate, and David has provided his discovery, if applicable.
Pre-arraignment motions will also be heard, and then plea negotiations will be discussed between the State and David. Deadlines for the filing of all remaining pre-trial motions will be set, and a pre-trial motions hearing date will be scheduled.
Finally, a trial date will likely be scheduled.
In the time since The Ashley’s last update on this case, David has been assigned a public defender. (Interestingly, it’s the same public defender he was assigned to for his other pending criminal case, for trespassing and violating Jenelle’s protective order against him.)
After David was charged with child abuse in October 2023, Jenelle hired (and paid for) attorneys William and Tara Gore to defend her then-soulmate in his criminal court case. In January 2024, the fired Teen Mom 2 dad was hit with an additional felony charge of “assault by strangulation,” but he still had the support of Jenelle– and her criminal defense team.
After Jenelle and David split in February 2024, though, David had to go to the court to let them know he could no longer afford the private attorneys. William and Tara Gore were removed from the case in May, and David was forced to declare himself indigent (aka living in poverty and unable to afford basic life necessities). He begged the court to assign him a public defender.
In the Affidavit of Indigency he filed with the court in May 2024, David declared the sad state of his finances, revealing he only has $106 total in all his bank accounts. He also claimed to be nearly $49,000 in debt.
(David must have found some cash, though, as he recently hired a private lawyer to represent him in his divorce court case against Jenelle.)
The Ashley can also reveal that the State of North Carolina has already retained several attorneys to prosecute the case against David. Among them is Columbus County’s Chief Assistant District Attorney, Jenna Earley, who often handles cases with child physical abuse. (In her previous role as the assistant DA in another county in North Carolina, Jenna worked as a Special Victims Prosecutor focusing on adult and child sexual abuse/assaults, child physical abuse, and human trafficking.)
In North Carolina, a victim must have sustained physical injury in order for the alleged assaulter to be charged with ‘Assault by Strangulation,’ as David was. It is a Class H felony and carries a maximum of 39 months in prison.
The official court summons issued in October 2023 claims that David “willingly” harmed Jace during the September 2023 incident.
“[David] unlawfully and willingly did, being the parents of Jace V Evans, who was a child, less than 16 years of age, inflict physical injury on that child,” the court document states. “The physical injury inflicted caused marks on [Jace’s] right arm, and left and right side of the neck, and was inflicted by other than accidental means.”
Jenelle’s mom Barbara Evans revealed to the cops what Jace allegedly told her about David assaulting him.
“Made contact with Barbara who advised [Jace] was not at the residence…” the police report states. “She advised that she had spoken to [Jace] earlier in the evening when he called from an unknown number and told her about being assaulted by David Eason and that he ran away and was hiding…”
It is unknown at this time if Jace will have to testify in court against David during his trial. It is also unknown what role Jenelle will play— if any— in the case against David.
The Ashley will continue to update this story as more info becomes available. Stay tuned…
RELATED STORY: EXCLUSIVE! David Eason Lawyers Up To Fight Ex Jenelle Evans in Court Over Custody, Child Support & More
(Photos: MTV; Instagram; TikTok)
19 Responses
What role can Jennelle play in his child abuse case? She knew what he did to the animals. She actually paid for a defense for him, even after it was upgraded to the Class H Felony, she made excuses for everything bad he did while they were together and only after the relationship was over, she has attempted to portray him as a monster to her and her children to anyone who will listen. Hopefully the Judge will scold her in open court in front of Jace so the poor kid can feel “seen and heard” and know he did not deserve that, nor did he have a mother that protected him, believed him, listened to him, or even handled it the way she should have as a Mother. The former District Attorney really sounds like she is going to put a hurting on David and I only hope that she mandates individual therapy for the kids and Janelle so she can LEARN how to be a good mother and those kids can get the help they need to process their trauma so it does not hold them back in life or spin them into unhealthy coping mechanism such as drugs and alcohol. I think a petition should be made and gather as many signatures as possible to make sure Eason gets the heavy hand of the law upon him with a felony verdict, jail time, a long duration of probation and mandated mental health therapy/rehab all of which he has to pay himself or repay as well as financial restitution to Jace for what he has done to him.
Hi from NC here and just to let yall know, I pressed this same charge against an ex boyfriend after he attacked me. He was a convicted felon that had spent around 2 years in prison for some property crime/theft. He took a plea the next court and was given a year of supervised probation, then released that afternoon. Hr spent around 2 days in jail, in total. So don’t hold out any hope of UBT facing any real consequences. I hate it, but that’s just the way it is, I’m afraid.
I’d be happy if they just took away his rights to own weapons and have no contact with Jace. But seems like he’s doing just fine without Jenelle so 🤷♀️ but she should also be charged for not protecting her children!!!
For real! Haha! He had a job and a place of his own before he met her. He was also clean and put together looking. He married her, became some sort of raging swamp thing, now without her he seems just like an average guy again.
i mean, he was fresh out of jail where he had done a stint with her ex husband courtland, and had already lost custody of his son for abusing the mother while she was pregnant. i’m not exactly sure he was ever an upstanding citizen
As much as I want David to be put behind bars, I really hope that Jace does not have to be in the courtroom near him.
Jenelle got special permission she says to have him at Ensley birthday party at April’s where Jace was living at the time. April is David’s sister.
Also when she had the ” intruder” come to her house.
I hope all of this mental abuse with Jace gets brought up.
Taking Kaiser to Tennessee and then snatching him back.
She screws with all of their mental health
Jenelle seems to gravitate toward men who have a habit of using strangulation as their go to method of abuse
Very seriously, how is Jenelle not also being held responsible for allowing this man to harm her son, for watching it, lying about it, and publicly blaming Jace while he spiraled from such trauma as your own egg donor allowing a man to attack you then calling you the bad guy? It’s disgusting that David did this but Jenelle is equally disgusting. She has always had the money to never let the wrong people around her kids. Yet she refuses to be a real mother. She deserves some sort of consequences just the same as David.
Sadly, they see it all the time.
even though i want to see him fight with jenelle in court and make her waste more money for their divorce, i do hope they get his a$$ in prison and make him a felon so that way he can’t even own his firearms he apparently can’t live without
He had an active order of Protection against him.
He is not allowed to own any guns.
wait i’m confused because didn’t he still own them when baby mama #2 had one against him too?
Where is Jenelle’s charges too? She should be held accountable also. At the very least neglect.
I’m hoping she will be charged after David’s sentencing.
Sorry for downvoting you, I didn’t want it, but my nails are too long 😁
Didn’t Jenelle deny the allegations against David at the time? If so, is she allowed to testify against him? Legit curious. Either way he’s scum
She sure did. She insinuated that David was protecting the family FROM JACE and heavily implied he has mental health problems that cause him to act violently. She stood ten toes down in defense of Big Ugly. So while I so badly want David to see some actual consequences for putting his hands on a child…I also hope David’s attorney is smart enough to use Jenelle’s own words against her so that at the very least she gets fully exposed in court for the liar that she is.
I have zero faith in the court system. Hopefully they get this one right.🤞🏼
P.S. Jenelle can go screw herself. It still pisses me off that she defended this asshole over Jace. She sucks as a person and she will never be a good mother.