PHOENIX — A jury convicted Cudjoe Young on Wednesday of armed robbery and attempted armed robbery in connection with crimes targeting two women, including Mercedes Vega, in Phoenix in 2020.

On October 12, 2020, a masked, armed man robbed Vega outside her Phoenix apartment building after she finished a late-night shift at a local club. Weeks later, a similar attempt occurred against a second dancer from the same club in her Phoenix-area parking garage, though the assailant fled when a car approached.

In the robbery trial, the prosecutor pointed to cell tower data and other digital evidence that she said linked Young to the crimes. Young’s attorney, Candice Shoemaker, described some of the digital evidence as unreliable and said her client was not “the guy with the gun.”

Mercedes Vega, who was 22 years old, was found burned and shot, with blunt force injuries, in an abandoned car on an interstate west of Phoenix on April 17, 2023. Vega’s mother said her daughter was scheduled to testify in the robbery case the day she was found dead.

Young, 30, faces separate charges of murder, kidnapping, arson, theft, conspiracy, and armed robbery with a deadly weapon in connection with Vega’s death. Prosecutors have alleged that Young, Jared Gray, and Sencere Hayes killed Vega to prevent her from cooperating with authorities or as retaliation for cooperating. All three have pleaded not guilty to charges related to her killing.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which tried Young on the robbery charges, declined to comment Wednesday evening. Shoemaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.