Vail Police Department
EAGLE — A Florida man was already an escapee from Colorado’s prison system when he allegedly stole an SUV at knifepoint Friday night from a Vail hotel.
Evan Reichert, 33, has a 37-page criminal history that began in 2005 in Florida with larceny, narcotics, burglary, probation violations and other crimes, prosecutors said during Reichert’s first court appearance Monday afternoon.
He migrated to Colorado in 2011 where his criminal behavior continued.
“He has been on a 14-year crime spree that has not stopped,” Deputy District Attorney Johnny Lombardi said.
Most recentlyin Eagle County District Court, Reichert earned a six-year sentence after a felony conviction. Lombardi said Reichert lasted 26 days before he walked away from community corrections, a halfway house where prisoners are allowed to hold down a job in the community.
That made Reichert an escapee from the state prison system when he allegedly pulled Friday’s automobile theft, Lombardi said.
Besides being charged with attempted murder for allegedly threatening people with a knife while stealing the SUV, Reichert is accused of kidnapping a victim, running from police in a stolen vehicle, burglary and a host of other felonies, Lombardi said.
With his prior felony convictions, Reichert could be classified as a habitual criminal, Lombardi said.
“He’s looking at more than 100 years in the state Department of Corrections, which would be the rest of his natural life,” Lombardi said.
‘I didn’t try to murder anybody’
Reichert told Judge Rachel Fresquez that he does not understand the attempted murder charge.
“I didn’t try to murder anybody,” Reichert said, appearing on a video call from the Eagle County jail, where he is being held on $150,000 bond.
Judge Fresquez responded that the charge claims he demonstrated “universal malice manifesting an indifference toward human life.”
Four prosecuting attorneys and three Vail police officers were in court Monday for Reichert’s first appearance.
What police say happened
The 911 call came into the Vail Public Safety Communications Center at 8:20 p.m. Friday that a man wielding a knife had stolen a 2019 Chevrolet Suburban from a valet at the Vail Marriott Mountain Residences.
Officers were on the scene in moments. Police say Reichert fled in the SUV but crashed it into a fence at the rear of Vail’s Ritz Carlton, the next hotel up the street, near Forest Road and Vail’s South Frontage Road. He abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot, running back into the Marriott where police momentarily lost contact with him.
Law enforcement officers from several agencies surrounded the building and immediately started a systematic search.
They found Reichert at 10:30 p.m. Friday near the rear of the Marriott at the bike path along Gore Creek.
He was transported to the Vail Health hospital where he was examined, then taken to the Eagle County jail.
Judge Fresquez scheduled final charges to be filed by July 15. Reichert is back in her court at 1:30 p.m. July 16.
