{"id":39441,"date":"2026-05-28T02:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T02:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/?p=39441"},"modified":"2026-05-28T02:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T02:36:11","slug":"man-charged-in-murder-of-arizona-dancer-is-found-guilty-of-robbing-her-3-years-before-she-was-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/?p=39441","title":{"rendered":"Man charged in murder of Arizona dancer is found guilty of robbing her 3 years before she was killed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-801f12\" class=\"body-graf\">A jury convicted an Arizona man Wednesday in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/dancers-arizona-club-feared-targeted-one-was-killed-rcna216391?utm_source=NBC&amp;utm_medium=iframely\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gunpoint robbery of an exotic dancer who was killed three years<\/a> later in a murder plot that officials say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/man-accused-armed-robbery-phoenix-dancer-charged-brutal-murder-rcna221859\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">he carried out with two other people<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><button class=\"styles_subscriptionCTA__LOUeY\" id=\"subscriptionCTA\" type=\"button\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"styles_textWrapper__vxvko\">\n<p class=\"styles_text__daaVB styles_textLarge__qlzwu\">Subscribe to read this story ad-free    <\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__daaVB\">Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/rockcms\/2026-01\/arrow-f55fa5.svg\" alt=\"arrow\" class=\"styles_arrow__tnruW\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/button><\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-d4aff3\" class=\"body-graf\">Cudjoe Young, 30, was found guilty of armed robbery and attempted armed robbery in connection with separate crimes targeting two women, including Mercedes Vega, in 2020, according to court records.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ec4882\" class=\"body-graf\">The Maricopa County Attorney\u2019s Office, which tried Young, declined to comment Wednesday evening. Young\u2019s attorney, Candice Shoemaker, did not immediately respond to request for comment Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n<section id=\"anchor-34d3bc\" class=\"embed-widget embedWidget embed-widget--medium\" data-testid=\"embed-widget\"\/>\n<p id=\"anchor-bf08aa\" class=\"body-graf\">Young also faces separate charges of murder, kidnapping, arson, theft, conspiracy and armed robbery with a deadly weapon connected to Vega\u2019s killing in 2023. Young and his alleged accomplices, Jared Gray and Sencere Hayes, have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-bf1a4e\" class=\"body-graf\">Vega, 22, was found burned and shot, with blunt force injuries, in an abandoned car on an interstate west of Phoenix on April 17, 2023.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2bd015\" class=\"body-graf\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-killing-exotic-dancer-found-burned-beat-rcna247455\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prosecutors have alleged<\/a> that the men killed Vega to prevent her from cooperating with authorities or as retaliation for cooperating. Vega\u2019s mother has said her daughter was scheduled to testify in the robbery case the day she was found dead.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-cc4063\" class=\"body-graf\">A masked, armed man robbed Vega outside her Phoenix apartment building after she had finished a late-night shift at a local club on Oct. 12, 2020, police records show. A masked, armed man tried to rob a second dancer from the club in that woman\u2019s Phoenix-area parking garage weeks later but fled after a car appeared, authorities have said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"styles_inlineImage__FvnTh styles_medium__MEKii\" id=\"anchor-a2422c\"><picture class=\"styles_image__i32F7\" data-testid=\"picture\" data-flavor=\"fit\" data-original-height=\"1667\" data-original-width=\"2500\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1000px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-05\/260521-Mercedes-Vega-ww-1657-3fb54d.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-05\/260521-Mercedes-Vega-ww-1657-3fb54d.jpg 1x\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-05\/260521-Mercedes-Vega-ww-1657-3fb54d.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-05\/260521-Mercedes-Vega-ww-1657-3fb54d.jpg 1x\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-05\/260521-Mercedes-Vega-ww-1657-3fb54d.jpg\" alt=\"Three photos of a young woman are hung with mini clothespins from a wire of LED lights on a wall.\" height=\"1667\" width=\"2500\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"caption styles_caption__TCewG\" data-testid=\"caption\"><span class=\"caption__container\" data-testid=\"caption__container\">Photographs of Mercedes Vega on a wall in her parents&#8217; home in San Tan Valley, Ariz., last year. <\/span><span class=\"caption__source\" data-testid=\"caption__source\">Megan Mendoza \/ The Republic\/USA Today Network via Imagn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"anchor-efd6ba\" class=\"body-graf\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/dancers-arizona-club-feared-targeted-one-was-killed-rcna216391?utm_source=NBC&amp;utm_medium=iframely\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A third woman from the club told NBC News<\/a> that she believes the same masked man targeted her outside her aunt\u2019s Phoenix-area condo unit in 2019. She\u2019d just finished a shift, she said, when the man appeared outside the home, pointed a gun in her face and took her belongings.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-f743e4\" class=\"body-graf\">A spokesman for the Scottsdale Police Department, which investigated that robbery, said there was no evidence to link it to the other incidents.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-835b01\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">In the robbery trial, the prosecutor pointed to cell tower data and other digital evidence that she said linked Young to the crimes. Young\u2019s attorney described some of that evidence as unreliable and said her client was not \u201cthe guy with the gun.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/mercedes-vega-dancer-robbing-murder-rcna346426\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A jury convicted an Arizona man Wednesday in the gunpoint robbery of an exotic dancer who was killed three years later in a murder plot that officials say he carried out with two other people. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. Cudjoe Young, 30, was found [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-conditions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39443,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39441\/revisions\/39443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}