Overview
- Opening statements in Cudjoe Young’s robbery trial, which began Tuesday, center on two 2020 holdups of dancers who worked at the same Phoenix strip club.
- Prosecutors say Young robbed Mercedes Vega outside her apartment on Oct. 12, 2020, forced her to unlock her phone, and took cash both in person and through a transfer app.
- A second dancer reported a masked gunman weeks later in a Scottsdale garage, and the defense says her photo lineup identification was uncertain.
- Young has pleaded not guilty in this case and in separate charges over Vega’s 2023 death, where investigators cite links to the car holding her body and fingerprints tying co-defendants Jared Gray and Sencere Hayes.
- The robbery case reached trial after years of delays and abandoned plea deals, and prosecutors allege Vega was killed to stop her from testifying with a death sentence sought if Young is later convicted in the murder case.