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Stabbing suspect will also face drug charges

These are the narcotics Eagle County Sheriff's investigators found when they located a backpack Chase Speegle and Aliyah Dolores McVay were carrying when they walked into a party late Saturday night at Beaver Creek's Tarnes employee apartments. Speegle, 19, is accused of stabbing a man in the back with a 7-inch knife.
Special to the Daily |

BEAVER CREEK — A man charged with stabbing someone in the back during a fight will also face drug charges, investigators said Wednesday.

Eagle County Sheriff’s investigators burned a little shoe leather and found a backpack witnesses say Chase Allen Speegle and Aliyah Dolores McVay brought to a party Saturday night in Beaver Creek’s Tarnes employee housing apartments.

Witnesses say the backpack contained a “very large quantity” of illegal drugs, including cocaine, a methamphetamine derivative called molly and LSD.



They were correct, said Mike McWilliam, Eagle County undersheriff.

After interviewing several witnesses, investigators found the backpack in the apartment where Speegle and McVay were staying, in a pile with some of their other belongings. The backpack still contained the drugs, several vials of LSD and at least two ounces of methamphetamine, McWilliam said.

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Prosecutors have until Friday to finish officially charging Speegle and McVay.

Court Appearance

The two made their first court appearance Tuesday where Eagle County Judge Katharine Sullivan set Speegle’s bond at $10,000 cash and McVay’s at $2,000 cash.

Prosecutors asked that Speegle’s bond get a $25,000 cash bond, citing Speegle’s guilty plea to a Douglas County, Wash., assault in August.

Speegle, 19, and McVay, 18, walked into a party in one of the Tarnes buildings carrying a tan backpack, witnesses said. Trouble started almost immediately when they opened the backpack to display the narcotics they had inside, witnesses told Eagle County Sheriff’s investigators.

The apartment’s occupants said they didn’t want any trouble and asked Speegle and McVay to leave.

The two left, but returned a short time later and started a fight, police said. That’s when Speegle stabbed the victim in the back with a 7-inch knife.

The 24-year-old victim was rushed by Eagle County paramedics to the Vail Valley Medical Center where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Witnesses at the party held Speegle down and police quickly arrived. They told police Speegle threatened his victim by saying he was part of a gang.

“I’ve been doing this for 29 years, and he looks nothing like a gang banger,” said Thomas Hammond, Speegle’s Denver defense attorney during Speegle’s first court appearance.

After the stabbing, witnesses at the party held Speegle down until police could arrive, police said.

Standing at the podium in Sullivan’s courtroom, Hammond turned toward Speegle, took a long look into his client’s face and listed the cuts, lacerations and then pointed out the blackened left eye.

“It looks to me like he’s the one who took the brunt of whatever happened,” Hammond said. “My understanding is that he was hospitalized after the police came.”

Both Speegle and McVay are from East Wenatchee, Wash., and told people at the party that they had just arrived in town, witnesses said.

Hammond said Speegle and McVay are here on vacation. If they make bail, they’ll go home to Washington state, said Hammond and McVay’s attorney, Lester Nieves.

Speegle was booked into the Eagle County jail on charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon, misdemeanor false reporting to authorities, misdemeanor trespassing and illegal possession of alcohol by a minor.

McVay fled the scene with the tan backpack full of drugs. She was quickly arrested and charged with felony destruction of evidence and misdemeanor obstructing a police officer.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 or rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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