Carson man to face murder charge

MINDEN -- A Carson City man will be tried for the murder of his ex-girlfriend's father and attempted murder of her mother, a judge decided Thursday.

Christopher Allan Fiegehen, 23, was ordered to face trial after a preliminary hearing in East Fork Justice Court.

He is charged in the Feb. 10 early-morning assault on Alan and Lorelle Chorkey that left him dead from stab wounds to his neck and her gravely injured with two gunshot wounds, one to the head and another to her chest.

Justice of the Peace Jim EnEarl determined there was sufficient evidence to show a crime had occurred and probable cause to believe Fiegehen had committed the murder, attempted murder, home invasion and burglary.

Testimony from criminologist Jeffrey Rolands of the Washoe County Sheriff's Office Crime Lab revealed Fiegehen's DNA was found on a hat discovered underneath Chorkey, who lay mortally wounded on the deck of the Johnson Lane-area home, and couldn't exclude his DNA as being on the handle of a Harley-Davidson knife found stuck in the deck.

Chorkey's blood was also found in at least three spots in Fiegehen's 1999 Ford Mustang and on the blade of the knife.

Rolands said the odds of someone else's DNA matching Fiegehen's is 1 in 50.94 billion.

Eight of the 10 witnesses called to testify by Deputy District Attorney Mark Jackson were in law enforcement. The other two were Fiegehen's ex-girlfriend Alane Dockstader, daughter of the victims, and friend Barbara Hubert.

Dockstader, 18, told the court she saw Fiegehen the evening before the murders, spending at least two hours alone with him at his apartment despite the fact that she had a restraining order against him.

During that visit, she said, Fiegehen showed her a new knife he bought with the Harley-Davidson logo on it.

She also testified Fiegehen wanted to rekindle their relationship, but she wasn't interested.

"I knew it was over. I don't know that he did or not," she said.

When defense attorney Richard Young asked Dockstader if she was afraid of Fiegehen in the days before the murder, she said she was not.

Hubert said Fiegehen showed up at her house at 6 a.m. on Feb. 10, waking her.

"He said, 'I told you I was coming to see you," Hubert said.

She said Fiegehen's demeanor was different because he wasn't looking at her and he was fidgeting.

"He said he wanted to borrow my car and go snowboarding," she said, so the two traded vehicles.

Later in the day, as Hubert was visiting friends in Incline Village, she noticed what looked like blood on the driver's side door of Fiegehen's Mustang.

"It wasn't ketchupy looking or hot-saucy looking," she said when asked why she thought it was blood. "I thought my dog did it."

Hubert said she cleaned the three spots with hot water and paper towels.

On the drive back to Carson City, Hubert was pulled over by a police officer and held at gunpoint.

"It was pretty scary," she said.

A deputy testified when he arrived at the Chorkey home Feb. 10, he and three other officers discovered broken glass and .357 magnum shell casings in the master bathroom. Lorelle Chorkey, covered in blood, was sitting on the floor near the kitchen, and Alan Chorkey was dead on the deck of the home.

"He was in a kneeling position, his body draped over his thighs and his head against the residence," said Deputy James Booth, of the Doulas County Sheriff's Department.

Booth said he felt Chorkey's neck for a pulse and attempted to rouse him.

"I put my hand on the right side of his back and called out to him 'Sir' several times and lightly shook him," he said.

Forensic pathologist Alane Olson of the Washoe County Coroner's Office testified Alan Chorkey suffered a "gaping defect in the skin of his neck with sharply cut edges."

Both Chorkey's carotid artery and jugular vein were severed, causing him to bleed to death, she said.

Fiegehen was ordered to appear in Douglas District Court for an arraignment July 23. He is being held at the Douglas County Jail without bond.