Sheila Evans feels the absence of her cousin every day.

Her cousin Brice Boots deeply cared about his family and friends. He had a great sense of humor. Many people respected and admired him, Evans said.

Boots was a retired truck driver who graduated from Edmondson High School in Baltimore and attended Virginia Union and Towson universities, according to his obituary. He was an avid bowler who enjoyed listening to R&B and jazz and later developed a passion for cooking.

Evans said she has not only had to navigate the pain of losing a loved one but grapple with the circumstances of his death.

On Jan. 10, 2024, Boots’ estranged wife, Frances Hamilton, a former Baltimore Police officer who unsuccessfully ran for sheriff in 2010, conspired with her great-nephew, Keon Wilson-Hawkins, and one of his friends, Alonzo Epps Jr., to kidnap, carjack and murder him, prosecutors reported.

Frederick County sheriff’s deputies found his body inside a 2003 Toyota Sequoia, which had been left in a field near Crum Road in Walkersville. He was 65.

“Losing my cousin has changed my life,” Evans said on Friday over Zoom in Frederick County Circuit Court. “I miss him so very much.”

Hamilton, 61, of Pikesville, never faced justice. Before detectives could question her in the killing, she died by suicide.

Epps, 25, of Baltimore, is awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder and related offenses.

Meanwhile, Wilson-Hawkins, 22, of Baltimore, was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, kidnapping and carjacking.

Describing the offense as the most serious crime that one can commit, Circuit Judge Scott L. Rolle sentenced Wilson-Hawkins to serve life suspending all but 85 years in prison. He must also spend five years on probation.

Wilson-Hawkins experienced a difficult childhood, Rolle said. But Boots’ loved ones, he said, have suffered a permanent loss.

“What do you do?” Rolle said. “I can’t bring the victim back.”

Assistant Public Defender Linda Zeit, one of Wilson-Hawkins’ attorneys, argued that the evidence showed that her client acted as an accomplice instead of a participant in the murder.

Hamilton had a motive to kill Boots, said Zeit, who also pointed out the personal nature of the crime.

Boots suffered injuries that included four stab wounds, rib fractures and intracranial hemorrhaging, prosecutors reported. Law enforcement found him with a dog leash around his neck.

Wilson-Hawkins shuffled back and forth from Philadelphia to Baltimore during his childhood, Zeit said. He was exposed to urban violence, endured poverty and self-medicated with drugs and alcohol.

Zeit urged the judge to “not make him another victim of Ms. Hamilton.”

“He does not deserve to be in prison with absolutely no chance of parole,” Zeit said.

Wilson-Hawkins’ mother, Kimyetta Hawkins, also pleaded for leniency.

“He’s not a bad person,” she said. “I just don’t want his whole life gone.”

But Chief Assistant State’s Attorney Ricky Lewis described the killing as a “brutal murder,” adding that Boots endured “hours of suffering.”

Lewis pushed for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“The injuries to the victim were significant,” Lewis said. “This was prolonged. This was premeditated.”

The relationship between Hamilton and Boots was tumultuous.

Boots filed for divorce in 2022, and the two later sought restraining orders against each other.

They were both scheduled to appear in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore County for a final protective order hearing on the morning of the killing.

Hamilton was the only one who showed up. That’s because Boots was already dead.

“I was afraid,” Hamilton testified at that hearing. “I didn’t want to be alone in there.”

James Pressley, Boots’ best friend, told him that he could stay over the night before court.

But Pressley said Boots was determined not to allow Hamilton to drive him out of his home of more than 30 years.

Boots never took him up on the offer.