Man charged in murder of Arizona dancer is found guilty of robbing her 3 years before her killing

U.S. newsMan charged in murder of Arizona dancer is found guilty of robbing her 3 years before her killingCudjoe Young on Wednesday was convicted of robbing Mercedes Vega in 2020. She was found burned and shot in an abandoned car in 2023.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Friends and family gathered to remember Mercedes Vega at Rio Salado Park in Tempe in 2023.Nicole Mullen / The Republic/USA Today Network via ImagnShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 27, 2026, 9:23 PM EDTBy Tim StellohA 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 others. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.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.Neither the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which tried Young, nor his attorney, Candice Shoemaker, immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday evening.Young also faces separate charges of murder, kidnapping, arson, theft, conspiracy and armed robbery with a deadly weapon connected to Vega’s killing in 2023. Young and his alleged accomplices, Jared Gray and Sencere Hayes, have pleaded not guilty.Vega, 22, was found burned, shot and with blunt force injuries in an abandoned car on an interstate west of Phoenix on April 17, 2023.Prosecutors have alleged that the men killed Vega to prevent her from cooperating with authorities or as retaliation for cooperating. Vega’s mother has said her daughter was scheduled to testify in the robbery case the day she was found dead.Vega was robbed by a masked, armed man outside her Phoenix apartment building after finishing 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 th...