A man accused of stealing hard drives containing unreleased music by Beyoncé from members of her team in Atlanta pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to five years on Tuesday, court officials said.
The man, Kelvin Lanier Evans, 41, pleaded guilty to entering an automobile and criminal trespass, according to Mario Boone, a spokesman for the Superior Court of Fulton County, Ga. Mr. Evans avoided a jury trial with the plea, Mr. Boone said.
Judge Jane C. Barwick sentenced Mr. Evans to serve two years in prison and spend the remainder of the sentence on probation, Mr. Boone added. In addition, Mr. Evans was ordered to stay away from the location of the theft and the victims in the case.
A lawyer for Mr. Evans did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment on Tuesday. A representative for Beyoncé also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The investigation began last year after two men on Beyoncé’s team, Christopher Grant, a choreographer, and Diandre Blue, a dancer, reported the theft on July 8, 2025. They told officers that they had parked their rented 2024 Jeep Wagoneer for about an hour in a parking garage for an apartment building in Atlanta, according to a police report.
While the vehicle was unattended, someone broke its rear window and swiped two suitcases that the men said had their belongings in them, the police said.
“Mr. Grant also advised that he was carrying some personal, sensitive information for the musician Beyoncé,” according to the police report, which the Atlanta Police Department posted on its website last year.
Among the stolen items: a set of hard drives, which held some unreleased music; set lists for past and future concerts; and footage plans for one of the singer’s upcoming shows.
The hard drives also contained watermarked music, meaning it had a digital identifier used by recording artists for copyright purposes and to prevent piracy.
At the time, Beyoncé had a series of Atlanta concerts scheduled as part of her wildly popular International Cowboy Carter Tour, featuring songs from her 2024 album “Cowboy Carter,” which won album of the year at the 2025 Grammys.
As part of the investigation by the Atlanta Police Department, the authorities said they dusted the vehicle for fingerprints, which yielded two very light prints. Investigators also said security cameras had recorded the break-in.
A pair of AirPods Max headphones, which was stolen and could be tracked via GPS, led officers to a person described in the report as suspicious.
The authorities issued a warrant for an arrest and the Hapeville Police Department, in a city south of Atlanta, took Mr. Evans into custody in August 2025, according to the Atlanta police.
He was booked into the Fulton County Jail on a $20,000 bond, jail records show. At the time, the authorities said the stolen items had not been found. It was unclear from court records whether the music and stolen items were recovered.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
