Stevie Vigil Charged

Stevie Vigil Charged

Dianne Frazee-Walker

Stevie Vigil, childhood friend and aspiring plus-size model has been charged for providing the gun Evan Ebel used on March 19 to kill Tom Clements, Colorado Correctional Chief.

22 year-old Stevie Marie Vigil of Commerce City, Colorado was indicted by a grand jury last Friday on one count of knowingly transferring a firearm to a convicted felon.  Stevie Vigil / Photo courtesy canoncitydailyrecord.com 

Vigil is accused of a “straw purchase” of a 9mm Smith & Wesson hand gun for $611.97 cash.  She allegedly handed the gun over to 28-year-old Evan Ebel, a member of the white supremacy gang 211 Crew and convicted felon. Ebel spent most of his adult life serving time in prison for robberies, menacing, weapons charges, and assault on a correctional officer.

Ebel allegedly took the gun and went on a shooting spree, killing Nathan Leon, pizza delivery driver, along with Tom Clements, Chief of Colorado Prisons. Ebel’s life ended in a shoot-out with police in Texas.

Ebel was released from prison in January and placed on parole after a long stretch of solitary confinement with no significant rehabilitation. Five days after his release he cut-off his ankle bracelet. On March 19, Ebel allegedly shot pizza delivery driver, Nathan Leon for his uniform. He drove to Clements’ house in Colorado Springs, knocked on Clements’s door posing as a pizza delivery man. Ebel shot Clements’s point blank in the head when he answered his door.  

Previous to Vigil’s arrest, authorities were investigating the possibility that Ebel acted alone or had help with the murders. Because of Ebel’s connection with prison gang 211 Crew even after his release, investigators suspected the crimes had gang ties.       

Normando Pacheco, defense attorney representing Vigil, stated when interviewed by 7 NEWS that Ebel forced Vigil to turn the gun over to him, but refused to say how Ebel intimidated Vigil into surrendering the gun when asked by 7 NEWS.

A friend of Vigil’s and witness to the case said Vigil was shocked when she received the news of what Ebel was accused of.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigations confirms that previous to last Friday’s arrest Vigil has no prior arrest records.

According to the arrest warrant Vigil had been a family friend of Ebel since she was 10 or 11-years-old. The document also records at least a dozen phone calls from Ebel to the Vigil residence between May-November of 2012 lasting 9-18 minutes. Ebel met up with Vigil 5-days after Ebel’s release from prison.

Vigil confided to a friend that Ebel wanted the gun for protection. Court documents revealed that after Ebel’s death Vigil admitted to a friend she bought the gun Ebel used to carry out his killing spree. According to documents Vigil also told the same friend that she contemplated ratting on Ebel after an argument with him.

Records indicate Ebel had another girlfriend he met through gang connections. When his new girlfriend found Ebel’s gun and inquired about it, Ebel explained he “had a plan for several years and his relationship with her was not going to deter it.” But the woman told investigators Ebel wouldn’t explain his plan because “law enforcement would take her child away to get information out of her.”

The sad and ironic twist to Ebel’s plan to murder Clements is Mr. Clements was an advocate for lowering the rate of Colorado’s prison inmates placed in solitary confinement. He was also working on developing re-entry programs to acclimate parolees released directly from solitary confinement before being released into society.

Clements’s death is allegedly the result of Ebel’s rage from being isolated in prison for long periods of time.

If Vigil is convicted of supplying Ebel, a convicted felon, with a firearm, she will face not more than 10 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

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