Bruised around the eyes and relying on corrections officers to keep him steady on his feet, 31-year-old Stacey Allen Graham appeared in jail court Tuesday facing charges he killed two 15-year-old girls in a drunken crash Friday night.
Family members of Brooke McPheters and Jordyn Durr wore pink and black ribbons and filled the back row of the small courtroom. A family representative said they wished not to speak publicly. The girls' mothers squeezed hands during the court proceedings. A uniformed Anchorage Police Department chaplain left with the families.
Stacey Graham's parents sat in the front row of courtroom. Their son looked up to make eye contact with them only once.
Prosecutor Aaron Peterson asked Judge Jennifer Henderson to raise Graham's bail from $75,000 to $500,000 cash, but Henderson said $100,000 cash would be more in line with similar cases. He was appointed a public defender after he said his income was variable because of his commission sales job.
Graham was arrested Monday night upon his release from the Alaska Native Medical Center, where he had been receiving treatment for injuries from Friday's accident, said Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Dani Myren.
Police waited until doctors cleared Graham medically to serve him with an arrest warrant, she said.
Graham had a blood-alcohol content of three times the legal limit when he lost control of his truck while speeding around a curve in Abbott Road, police have said.
Investigators are just beginning to piece together what happened in the hours leading up to the crash.
Graham attended a golf tournament at Eagleglen Golf Course on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson hosted by his employer, Puget Sound Pipe and Supply, on Friday, said company spokesman Steven Lewis from company offices in Kent, Wash.
People drink at the tournament, Lewis said. He said he couldn't say whether Graham drank at the event.
The event ended at 2:30 p.m., Lewis said. The accident happened around 6:45 p.m., police have said.
A traffic investigator assigned to the case didn't return phone calls Tuesday.
The crash was Anchorage's second fatal DUI of 2013.
On June 30, police say, Lane Douglas Wyatt, 22, an airman at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, was driving northbound on Boniface Parkway just before 5 a.m. when he ran a red light at the intersection with DeBarr Road and "T-boned" a car driven by Citari Townes-Sweatt, who died at the scene. He admitted to drinking beer and taking shots at an Anchorage bar earlier that night, according to court documents.
Her family said in an obituary that Townes-Sweatt, 20, was a "loving daughter, sister, auntie, and granddaughter" who worked at Costco.
Wyatt faces charges including second degree murder.
Graham's next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday, August 15.
Reach Michelle Theriault Boots at mtheriault@adn.com or 257-4344. Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257- 257-4589.
By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS and CASEY GROVE
Anchorage Daily News / adn.com