Man Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison for Stealing Unreleased Beyoncé Music

The man accused of stealing hard drives that contained unreleased Beyoncé music pleaded guilty in an Atlanta court on Tuesday.

Kelvin Evans, 40, was arrested by the Atlanta police department in September in connection to a July 2025 car robbery where two suitcases containing Beyoncé music and tour plans were stolen from a rental car.

During Tuesday’s plea hearing, Evans entered a guilty plea to avoid a jury trial to single counts of criminal trespass and entering a vehicle with the intent to commit theft in Fulton County Superior Court. 

Prosecutors described surveillance video that showed Evans allegedly driving in an Atlanta parking garage and parking next to a vehicle from which the hard drives were stolen.

They also said that Evans looked into the car, removed black suitcases, and later carried them into a building connected to his sister.

Prosecutors added that the suitcases were “never seen again” and that in an interview, Evans referred to himself as the “king thief of Atlanta.”

At one point, Evans’ niece told police that she received an iPhone and several chargers that were among the items stolen, which prosecutors confirmed were reported as stolen.

He was handed a sentence of five years that included two years in prison and the rest on probation. Previously he had pleaded not guilty and reportedly declined to take a deal in April.

Evans was also ordered to avoid the location of the theft in Atlanta and refrain from contact with the victim.

According to a July police report, Beyoncé choreographer Christopher Grant and dancer Diandre Blue called 911 to report the theft from their rental vehicle, a 2024 Jeep Wagoneer, before Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour dates in Atlanta.

An October indictment stated that Evans entered the car on 8 July “with the intent to commit theft”.

The stolen hard drives contained “watermarked music, some unreleased music, footage plans for the show and past and future set list”, according to a police report. 

Clothing, designer sunglasses, laptops and AirPods headphones were also stolen.

Local law enforcement searched for the location of one of the stolen laptops and the AirPods to try and locate the property. 

A police officer wrote in the report: “I conducted a suspicious stop in the area, due to the information that was relayed to me. There were several cars in the area also that the AirPods were pinging to in that area also.

“After further investigation, a silver [redacted], which had traveled into zone 5 was moving at the same time as the tracking on the AirPods.”

Evans was arrested several weeks after Grant and Blue filed a report, and was publicly named as the suspect in September. He was released on a $20,000 bond a month later.

At the time of his arrest, Atlanta police said that the stolen property had not been recovered. 

It is unclear whether it has since been found.

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter was the highest-grossing tour of last year, earning the performer over $407m across 32 shows. 

She won the 2025 album of the year Grammy for the project, which was praised by the Guardian’s Michael Cragg as “a thrilling 27-track journey through and beyond America’s roots music”.