DENVER — A Commerce City woman accused of giving a gun to Evan Ebel, the prime suspect in the murder investigation of DOC director Tom Clements, made her first court appearance Thursday morning.
Stevie Vigil, 22, appeared in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs in Arapahoe County Court. The judge decided to keep her bond at $25,000 and set a preliminary hearing for April 30.
She faces a charge of unlawful purchase of a firearm, a class 4 felony, which carries a sentence of up to 16 years in prison.
Vigil is accused of buying the 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun that was found when Ebel, 28, was fatally shot by deputies after a high speed chase and shootout in Texas last week.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigations said Vigil bought the gun from High Plains Arms, a licensed dealer, on South Broadway in Englewood and then provided it to Ebel.
The owner of High Plains Arms confirmed a gun was sold to Vigil but refused to comment further.
Ebel was a felon and could not legally buy a gun himself. Vigil has no criminal history.
The seller to Vigil has cooperated with investigators and “had no knowledge of Vigil’s alleged actions following her legal purchase of the gun,” the CBI said in a statement Wednesday night.
Ebel is accused of killing Clements and pizza delivery driver Nathan Leon.
Investigators believe Leon was killed so Ebel could use his Dominos uniform to pose as a delivery driver at Clements Monument home.
Ebel rang the doorbell to Clements home and when Clements answered, investigators say Ebel shot and killed him.
Ebel then fled to Texas, where he ended up leading police on a violent high speed chase and shootout last Thursday. Ebel died in the crash and gunfire.
Ballistics evidence links the 9mm to both the Clements and Leon’s shooting. Texas authorities also found a pizza uniform and delivery box in Ebel’s car after the shootout. Ebel also had handwritten directions to the prison chief’s house in his car.
Ebel had history of violence, but no clear motive in Clements death
FOX31 Denver has learned Ebel spent a great deal of time in prison and at one point threatened a security guard.
According to records from the Department of Corrections, Ebel first went to prison in February 2005 for an 11 year sentence on robbery and menacing charges out of Adams and Arapahoe counties.
In 2007, Ebel was given an additional 4 years in prison for an assault on a correctional officer.
All together, Ebel served 7 years, 11 months and 24 days in prison before he was released on January 28, 2013. When he was released, Ebel was wearing an ankle bracelet when he was paroled.
Motive in Clements, Leon murder cases still unclear
No clear motive has emerged in either murder case.
But investigators said they are looking into all possible angles, including Ebel’s onetime membership in the 211 Crew — a white-supremacist prison gang.
Even as a teenager, Ebel’s behavior suggested he was interested in white supremacy, said Kurt Frey, who knew Ebel from a boot-camp-type program in Samoa.
Ebel got out of prison in late January after serving seven years — three for felony menacing, robbery and assault, another four for assaulting a guard. He spent five years of that time in solitary confinement.
It was his second stretch in prison, after doing one year of a three-year term for armed robbery.
Investigators are looking into whether Ebel might have conspired with other inmates to kill Clements.
CNN contributed to this report.