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Competency evaluation ordered for man accused of killing mother, claims he was possessed

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Yeurashka Graham, the Colorado Springs man accused of killing his mother and then lighting her home on fire, is set to have a competency evaluation completed to determine if he is competent to stand trial.

Graham claimed he was "possessed by a demon" days before the fire, according to arrest documents. Graham faces first-degree murder charges for allegedly stabbing his mother, Theresa Graham, more than a dozen times on May 10, 2021.

In the arrest affidavit obtained by 13 Investigates, Graham allegedly told an associate during a jail phone call that a friend of his named Marian Fagan "put a demon inside him" days before May 10, 2021.

Tuesday, 13 Investigates spoke to Fagan, who says she in no way put a demon inside him. Instead, they spoke about religion.

"He was distressed and we prayed and I said as I always say, 'the best thing I can do for you is pray,' Fagan said.

Arrest documents detail how officers interviewed Fagan days before Graham was arrested for murdering his mother. In that conversation, she said she gave Yeurashka a crystal ball to "help clear himself" because things were weighing on him.

"There was no crystal ball. I have no crystal ball. If I had a crystal ball, I don't know how to use it. I don't know where it is and it doesn't work," Fagan told 13 Investigates.

Fagan explained how the crime Yeurashka is accused of committing does not align with the friend she knew.

"He asked me if it was consistent with how I knew Yuri and I said it absolutely is not," Fagan said. "This whole thing still is unthinkable to me. It makes no sense." 

On November 25, 2021, Yeurashka allegedly told a jail guard, "I wanted to confess to a crime. I know that I killed my mother," documents say.

When the jail guard interviewed Yeurashka at the El Paso County Jail, documents say he told them, "I was possessed by demons. Drugs made me do it."

On March 30, 13 Investigates spoke with Zechariah Andrews, the neighbor of Graham's mother back in May 2021. He was the first person to call 911 when the fire broke out.

"A long time coming. We knew it was going to happen, we knew what happened from day one," Andrews said. "We were speculating this whole time, we knew. The community around us knew. Why would you do this and then run to go up north and threaten police officers and stuff like that?"

On March 28, Colorado Springs Police arrested Graham, who was already in jail on attempted first-degree murder charges for allegedly assaulting Colorado Springs Police officers with a metal pole and a religious statue hours after the fire broke out.

Graham's defense attorney's motion for a competency evaluation was granted by the judge Tuesday. According to his defense, the evaluation can be completed in the next 21 days.

Graham will be back in court, with hopes of reviewing the evaluation, on June 10.

Article Topic Follows: Local News

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Sean Rice

Sean is reporter with the 13 Investigates team. Learn more about him here.

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