Three caretakers at the North Eastern Services residence near 900 North 1500 East in Vernal were arrested on Friday for actions related to the physical beating of a non-verbal adult resident of the home. 33-year-old Kayla Jeanine Evans was arrested on September 6th on the offenses of 2nd Degree Felony Intentional Aggravated Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult and Misdemeanor Obstruction of Justice and 23-year-old Ashia Wyasket was arrested on the offense of 2nd Degree Felony Intentional Aggravated Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult. According to the Affidavit of Probable Cause, the complainant told officers that she was across the street from the home when a young man walked over with his face covered in blood and appeared to have been sobbing. She ran over and asked who had hit him. The young man is nonverbal but pointed at a female who ran across the street towards them who was later identified as Kayla Evans. The complainant explained to officers that the young man did not appear to be throwing a temper tantrum and hurting himself as was claimed but instead acted and looked like someone had hit him. The caretakers’ version of events told to the officers broke down when an employee, who had been cooking in the kitchen when the incident began, shared an audio recording taken at the time of the incident. The employee told officers that Evans and Wyasket were locking the victim inside his room and he was kicking the door. Wyasket grabbed a wooden dowel and the pair took turns hitting the victim in the head with it. On the audio, the noise of the wood hitting the head is heard multiple times before Wysket and Evans can then be heard laughing. It was also shared with the officers that there have been other incidents of physical abuse but employees were scared to lose their jobs and had not reported them. After Wyasket was told about the audio recording, she changed her version of events and admitted that she and Evans had taken turns hitting the victim with the dowel multiple times. After Evans was told about the audio recording she eventually admitted she had hit the victim with the dowel. She also admitted that her broken hand was caused by back handing the victim on the back of the head. At the hospital, officers observed that the victim had multiple bruises and injuries on his face, neck, chest, and fresh welt marks on his side. A third person was booked for criminal negligence due to not reporting or attempting to stop the abuse but no name was provided. Evans and Wyasket were released from Uintah County Jail on certain conditions.
