EAGLE — The teenager accused of trying to stab an Avon woman to death on a jogging path will either go to trial or prison. He’ll announce which on the afternoon of Feb. 11.
Nineteen-year old Andrew Young’s attorney, Chief Public Defender Thea Reiff, arranged the court date during a hearing earlier this week before District Court Judge Russell Granger.
District Attorney Bruce Brown has said the case against Young is “strong.”
If Young does end up in prison, Reiff told the judge she would like for at least some of that to be in a juvenile facility, where he’s more likely to get counseling.
Facing five decades in prison
Young is charged with:
- Attempted first-degree murder after deliberation
- First-degree assault with a deadly weapon
- Criminal attempt to commit a crime
An attempted murder conviction carries a sentence of up to 48 years in prison.
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Young remains in jail after Judge Granger set Young’s bond at $2 million, the highest in the Eagle County jail at this time. During that bond hearing last May, Judge Granger said he did not “recall many cases with this level of violence and this level of threat to the community.”
During that bond hearing, DA Brown said Young admitted in a recorded jail phone call that he was the sole participant in the attack.
What police say happened
Young moved to the Vail Valley from New Jersey in mid-April. He had lived with his mother in Liftview apartments for two days when he allegedly ambushed and stabbed an Avon woman four times.
The apartment was a quarter mile away from the site of the alleged attack. The woman was out for a morning jog around 6:26 a.m.
She saw him and continued her run. When he got to within an arm’s length, he plunged the knife into her body four times, including her head, Brown said.
After he attacked her he fled the scene, Brown said.
His mother took him to a local doctor with knife wounds to his hands. That doctor immediately alerted police, because the doctor had been informed about the assault, Brown said.
Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.
