The dancers of an Arizona club feared being targeted – then one was killed

The Sheriff’s Bureau of the Comté de Maricopa now recommends that Young is accused of conspiracy in order to commit a first degree and conspiracy murder in order to commit a kidnapping of Vega, according to a press release of the probable cause last month before the Superior Court of this County.

For Vega’s mother, the latest development brought a relief measure.

“We had the impression of drowning in a sea of despair and sorrow for two and a half years,” said Erika Pillsbury. “And now we have been thrown a lifekeepers. The people who are responsible for the murder of my little girl will hope, to face justice. ”

Two other suspects were accused in the death of Vega. The Office of the County Prosecutor of Maricopa has deposited accusations of first degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and theft against Jared Gray, according to a complaint on June 20. Gray was in detention in Georgia for unrelated accusations and was not extradited in Arizona, said a spokesperson for the Sheriff of Maricopa County.

A third person, Sencere Hayes, was charged in November of first degree murder, abduction, armed robbery and theft as part of the murder of Vega. He pleaded not guilty.

The authorities have provided little details on the link between men, although the probable report has identified a geographic link – Chattanooga, Tennessee. Young is of the city, indicates the declaration, and Hayes and Gray went to Phoenix from there.

The Sheriff’s Bureau of the county of Maricopa refused to comment. A spokesman for the County Prosecutor’s Office said he was examining potential accusations against Young, 29, but would not comment on the flight affair, which she was pursuing and should judge July 29. It is not clear why the case took judgment.

Lawyers from Hayes and Young did not respond to requests for comments. The judicial archives do not list a lawyer for Gray. In an interview with the authorities, he denied having been in Arizona, according to the probable report.

A terrifying incident near you

At 4:15 am on October 12, 2020, Vega was parked outside his building after a work when a masked man ran to her, pulled a firearm and demanded his personal effects, according to a report of the Phoenix police department.

The man caught Vega’s phone and held him to his face to try to unlock it, but failed because the facial recognition function was not put in place, Vega’s mother reminded that his daughter had told him. When he ordered him to enter her pin, Vega resisted, said Pillsbury.

“He pushed her to the ground, told him that he would kill her and held the pistol on his face,” said Pillsbury.

Vega conforms, said Pillsbury, and the man took everything – car keys, wallets, telephone and a bag containing hundreds of dollars. With the telephone unlocked, the man stole more money via a cash transfer application, according to the report.

Vega was so distraught, recalls Pillsbury that “you couldn’t walk behind it without it jumping”.

In a few days, said Pillsbury, Vega moved somewhere that she thought she had better security. The new apartment was on the second floor, said Pillsbury, and had a parking lot that required a keychain to access.

Three years later, this garage was the last place that Vega would be seen alive.

Another dancer says she was probably followed

Vega, who played Phoenix Strip Club Le Girls and who had saved to become a certified personal coach, was not the only dancer in the place who said they had been targeted after a quarter of work. In the previous months and after the Flight of Vega, two other women declared that a masked man had maintained them – or had tried to maintain them – under the threat of a firearm, according to interviews with former dancers and police reports.

A former dancer who said she had been stolen did not know Vega well, but asked Vega to describe her attacker.

After Vega described a man with gloves, a ski mask and a larger hooded sweatshirt – Vega had 5 feet 8 inch – the former dancer said she thought she was probably targeted by the same person. (The woman asked NBC News not to identify her because she no longer works as a dancer.)

Around 4:30 a.m. on November 2, 2019, she said, a masked attacker appeared in front of the condo of his aunt in a calm part of Scottsdale, a rich suburb east of Phoenix, and pointed a pistol on his face. He took his bag and fled.

Subsequently, said the woman, she struck so hard on the front door of her aunt that her joints bleed.