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Alleged Avon stabber Andrew Young’s prelim set for October; he remains in jail on $2 million bond in knife attack case

The prliminary hearing for Andrew Young, left, is scheduled for Oct. 31. He's charged with attempted murder in an early-morning knife attack on an Avon woman, and is being held on $2 million bond in the Eagle County jail.
Randy Wyrick|randy@vaildaily.com

EAGLE — The preliminary hearing for Andrew Young, the teenager accused of trying to stab an Avon woman to death on a jogging path in early May, is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 31.

His attorneys will get to tell a bit of his side of what happened early that May morning, but not much.

What’s a preliminary hearing?



Under Colorado law, a preliminary hearing is held before a judge when the defendant faces felony charges.

Young is charged with attempted murder for the alleged early-morning knife attack.

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During Young’s preliminary hearing, Assistant District Attorney Heidi McCollum and Chief Deputy District Attorney Joe Kirwan will have to convince District Court Judge Russell Granger that there is enough evidence to put Young on trial for the assault.

If Granger rules that there is, then Young will plead either guilty or not guilty, and the case goes to trial.

District Attorney Bruce Brown said the case against Young is “strong.”

‘Threat to the community’

Young remains in jail after Granger set Young’s bond at $2 million.

“This case is unlike most cases we see,” Granger said during Young’s bond hearing. “However … I do not recall many cases with this level of violence and this level of threat to the community.” During that bond hearing, 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, and had lived in the Liftview apartment with his mother 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 knife attack.

A woman was out for a morning jog around 6:26 a.m.

She allegedly saw Young 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.


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