Law&Crime Sidebar - Third Suspect Nabbed in Dancer Burned Alive Case

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

A third man, Jared Gray, allegedly connected to the brutal torture and murder of exotic dancer Mercedes Vega, has been extradited to Arizona to face charges. Gray's co-defendants are already dealing with the possibility of the death penalty. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber takes a closer look at Gray's alleged involvement in the sinister plot with criminal defense attorney Meg Strickler.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Grow your own audience today – go to https://www.opus.pro/sidebar for 1 week free plus 50% off the first 3 months of Opus Pro. HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondry Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A third man allegedly connected with the brutal torture and murder of a dancer has been extradited across the country. Jared Gray will now face charges in Arizona, and this comes as his co-defendants contend with the possibility of the death penalty. Could Gray face the same fate? we are taking a closer look at his alleged involvement in this sinister plot to kill Mercedes Vega. And reportedly, this was all done to keep her from testifying. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. Now here's something to think about. If you're in the content creation game, if you're putting things out on social media, have you ever wondered how we're able to share so many clips from all of these cases so quickly? Here's a secret. We use something called Opus clip. This is an all-in-one AI editor that makes it so easy to cut, create, and upload video. videos across any platform. Through AI, Opus Clip generates B-Rull, it reframes footage, and even

cleans up audio. It is so easy. You just visit Opus.pro slash sidebar. You sign up, you upload, and in minutes, you will have perfectly edited clips ready to go. So for TikTok, Shorts, Reels, Opus Clip is your one-stop shop. And having a tool like Opus Clip means that our producers can get you viral courtroom updates instantly. This is the most powerful tool there is to share ideas and edit like a pro. So go to Opus.pro slash Sidebar to get a free week and then finish. 50% off. When Mercedes Vega was robbed at gunpoint in 2020, she may have been terrified if her alleged attacker, but she was brave enough to agree to pursue charges and testify against him, picked him out of a lineup. She was going to testify against him in court. But that alleged attacker

reportedly retaliated against her, allegedly summoning two other men from the other side of the country to come and kill this young woman. That is according to prosecutors in Maricopa County, Arizona. In April of 2023, Mercedes was expected to take the witness stand and testify that Kudjo Young had been the man who threatened her with a gun. But just one day before that court hearing, Mercedes disappeared. Surveillance cameras in her apartment's parking garage and Tempe showed Mercedes walking out of the building for the last time. Investigators believe she was abducted off camera by men in a Chevy Malibu, who also, by the way, allegedly took her Dodge charger and abandoned it not far from her apartment. But now we got to talk about one of the suspects

being brought to Arizona. Maricopa County deputies claim that Jared Gray was one of those men, one of those men who was involved in the kidnapping and murder of Mercedes. And they say there was physical evidence to tie him to this. And we're going to get to that in a minute. But I got to show you some new video. Okay, so new video of Gray's arrival out in Arizona. The sheriff's office shared video of Gray being brought in for processing at the Maricopa County Jail on the night of January 8th, shackles on his hands and feet. Gray calmly followed the deputy's direction, sometimes looking directly into the camera that was filming him. He was given a striped jail jumpsuit as well as some food and a gatorade. He had his mugshot taken.

And he had a late night arraignment. And this is where the judge read out the charges that he now faces. A grand jury found that there was probable cause for the following allegations. One count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, which is a class one felony. One count of murder in the first degree premeditated, which is a class one felony. So according to media outlet, Arizona Family, Gray faces a total of nine charges, including first degree murder. Now, he was originally indicted last summer. There was a warrant that was issued for his arrest, and he was taken into custody in Georgia on unrelated charges, which delayed his extradition.

But then you have this June 2025 indictment that reads Jared DeMarcus Gray on or about April 16, 2023, intending or knowing that his conduct would cause death with premeditation, cause the death of Mercedes Mariana Vega. The state further alleges that the offense charged in this count is a dangerous felony because the offense involved the discharge, use, or threatening exhibition of a gun and or blunt force instrument, a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, and or the intentional or knowing infliction of serious physical pain upon Mercedes Mariana Vega. And that's what we got to talk about. Mercedes body was found in the back of that Chevy Malibu, which, by the way, was abandoned. It was engulfed in flames on the side of I-10, so more than an hour away from where Mercedes lived.

And the injuries that this young woman sustained were horrific. The medical examiner confirmed she had been shot in the arm, she had been beaten, She had bleach poured down her throat and she was burned alive. She ultimately died from smoke inhalation, according to the medical examiner's office. But it was the evidence in her abandoned Dodge Charger that would lead investigators to the three suspects. Inside the car, deputies say they found the large purse that Vega was carrying in the surveillance footage, but there was blood. They also found apparently a plastic grocery bag with blood near its handles that contained another bag. This is according to court filings reviewed by the Arizona Republic.

And a fingerprint apparently found on the plastic was submitted to the national database. It took a year for a matching print from a crime in Tennessee to be added. That is how police identified Senzer Hayes. Jared Gray's fingerprint was reportedly found on the bottom of a plastic cup inside the Malibu. That's according to the Arizona Republic. And the criminal complaints indicate that police were able to get their hands on travel information, apparently tying Young to the other suspects, and this includes purchases of plane tickets for Hayes and Gray to fly out to Arizona from Tennessee, where all the defendants are apparently from.

It is believed that the credit card information connects back to Young. And when investigators apparently spoke with Gray, he allegedly told them that he traveled to Arizona for business, but wouldn't say with whom and claimed he didn't know Young or Hayes. Now, investigators believe that Young had Hayes and Gray do his dirty work. Why? because he was apparently out on bond in the armed robbery case and he had to wear a GPS monitor. But when deputies learned about the flights that Young had allegedly purchased, they were able to connect the plane ticket back to a phone number. That phone was then apparently traced to the

area where Mercedes was found in the burning Malibu. Maricopa County investigators also reportedly talked to a man whose cell phone location was near the scene of that burning car. He apparently ended up telling authorities that Young called him to go, quote, pick up a package which turned out to be two men, so likely Hayes and Gray. And the court paperwork indicates that the man told detectives that he was given the location, as well as a car, he picked up two men, drove them back to the Phoenix area. Phones belonging, apparently to that man and Hayes, both allegedly show them an I-10 in the hours after Vegas' death. And one day after Mercedes was found dead, Hayes and Gray reportedly took a Greyhound bus back to Chattanooga, Tennessee,

from Arizona. Maricopa County deputies, they flew to Tennessee in November of 2024 to arrest Hayes. He was charged with premeditated first-degree murder, kidnapping, resulting in death, arson, armed robbery with a deadly weapon theft, hindering prosecution. And now that Gray has been extradited as well, Arizona outlets who have reviewed court records, they are reporting that he is being held at a combined $4 million cash bond. He scheduled for a preliminary hearing on January 20th, this is according to court records. Now, prosecutors haven't said whether they're going to seek the death against Gray, but his alleged co-conspirators, they have already been informed that they could face capital punishment if they're convicted of killing Mercedes. You know, Mercedes mom, Erica Pillsbury,

told Outlet ABC 15, to know that we'll be seeing all three of them in the courtroom together makes me a little nervous, it makes me a little nauseous. And I had a chance to speak with both Erica and her husband Tom back before Christmas about some of the latest developments in the case. Take a look. This decision to move forward with the death penalty against two of these defendants, how are you feeling about that? And is this something that you both were advocating for since the beginning? Yeah. I wanted Cujo, sincere and Jared to know that we would never stop,

that they needed to understand that. and that any life I have left in me and any breath I have left, I will continue to advocate for Mercedes. And I will ensure that every lawful consequence that they could possibly endure, they will face. They chose to make this decision. And I think that the consequences should be brought down upon them without mercy, without hesitation.

We won't rest until every person who is responsible. for taking her away from us as held accountable. It's something we've been fighting for. It's very hard to be happy about this because you have mixed emotions. You're happy and sad and you're angry and you're frustrated. I'm not happy that someone could die. That's not what I want. But what they did to our child, it fits what they did to our child.

I'm not an advocate of saying, oh, well, this or an eye for an eye. But, I mean, ultimately, my daughter didn't do anything wrong. This is over a cell phone and $1,000. They had no caring of life. People flying here that didn't know her. Like Erica said, it fits what they did. I mean, they could have done a simple thing, but they ended up torturing our child. They don't have any care for life.

So I don't have any reservations about that. I'm glad that the state has finally got to that point because Kujo is the main person in this whole thing. He is the reason we're sitting here. The other people just followed along. And for the state to agree that he deserves is a very, it's very good for us. And it kind of helps us that we're now going on that path that we know is going to be a long path. They didn't just take her life. They destroyed all of our lives.

Yes. Okay, I want to bring on criminal defense attorney Meg Strickler to talk more about this. Meg, thank you so much for taking the time. I really, really appreciate it. Now, one of the things people might not know is that you have familiarity when it comes to extradition. So I want to start right there. Talk to me about the process of extraditing someone from Georgia to, let's say, okay, Arizona here. What does that entail?

You know what? I want to kind of do a public service announcement first off about extradition. If you have two different states and somebody has a charge for murder, kidnapping, whatever, in Arizona, and you are charged in Georgia, excuse me picked up in Georgia, waive the formal extradition hearing. That's my public service announcement. That's free legal advice. Explain that. Why I'm saying that is I have so many clients that call up and say, we don't understand, we don't know what we're doing. I can explain it. an extradition hearing would be to fight on the merits that Arizona doesn't have the right to come and get me. So you have the same kind of law with different countries. So, for example, if you had a murder charge in Mexico, they can come and there's no fighting extradition if the charges are very similar in different countries or different states.

So same concept forever. Now, the only time you would ever fight extradition is if it was politically motivated, there were some reason that there was not. not merits to the original charge. The reason I'm saying it's a PSA is that it expedites the entire process. If you want to have an extradition hearing, you've got to wait for it to be calendared. It's better to sign the formal extradition. So in a case like this, it's an easy thing to do. We know that the charges for this gentleman are murder or kidnapping all these horrible things. That is something that is similar in Georgia. There's no reason to fight it. So in other words, you're saying for somebody in Gray's position, right, don't fight it because you're just going

delay the process. You're already going to be locked up in jail out in Georgia. But I guess like the question would be, he has to imagine, and we'll talk about the bond, $4 million, you know, out in Arizona. He had to have imagined that he's not going to get to Arizona and be free, you know, out on bond. So I guess the question is why not present a legal challenge and what would that legal challenge be to extradition? The paperwork is not complete. There's a due process violation of some kind. They have the wrong guy. I don't know how, what would be the challenges? That's all good stuff. You can definitely save the wrong guy.

You didn't identify me properly. I was my brother. Something like this. That the charges themselves don't have any merit. And you certainly can just simply be a litigious person and be like, you know what? I'm just going to fight this tooth and nail for every single thing. And if the T wasn't cross and the eye wasn't dotted, I'm filing something to fight it. And in a context like this, I just feel like the entire system, we should just keep going.

And look, I don't know what's going on with this case. But you've got to wonder if that he doesn't have the death penalty on him yet, is there some sort of cooperation going on? And that one of the things that's been taken off the table is a death penalty. And he already has signed the waiver extradition. That's why he's being heading back to Arizona already. That's pretty fast because everything takes forever in the system. That's interesting.

I want to talk about that. One thing was interesting, as far as I understand, so he was originally gray, was officially charged in June 2025. now extradited. Took some time. Why? Well, that is a kind of a $64,000 question, and I don't ever have a great answer for that.

So, for example, you have an active arrest warrant in any state, in any county. They put it out on the wire, okay? So here in Georgia, I can only talk about Georgia here, but they put it on the county, they put it on the state, and then they put it on the federal, okay? So if there's an active warrant,

the government can say, hey, go get my guy so that there's a governor's warrant that can go get him in Georgia and ship them back to Arizona. Okay. So I don't really know in general why warrants aren't. I just don't think we have the ability to execute all these arrest warrants and get people arrested fast and efficiently. But I don't really give you a rational common sense answer because I don't really understand why some folk they run out and get them and why other folk they don't run out and get them. Yeah. So he comes here, right? He's on this four. $4 million bond. Now, I know every state is different, but generally speaking, if this were Georgia,

let's say, why $4 million? Why just no bond? I mean, we're talking first-degree murder here. Well, here in our state, I would really venture to guess we would never get a money amount to put on it, okay? Because in our state, when you're first arrested, you wouldn't get bond because it's one of what we call the seven deadly sins. So you wouldn't get one. And a lawyer would have to petition the court to say, hey, give my guy bond. And all of these gentlemen have prior criminal histories. So I do scratch my head a tiny little bit that there's any bond at all. Because the bond factors are kind of the same throughout the United States. Are you a danger as one? Are you risked to re-offend another? Are you going to influence other witnesses? Why did you

get bond? I don't know. Why is there a bond? Shouldn't be one. Especially given the circumstances of this case when one of his co-defendants is accused of being out, right, GPS monitor, ankle monitor, and allegedly orchestrated the hit on Mercedes-Vegas. So put that to the side. I have to go back to something that you mentioned. Now that he has been transferred there, deals, you have multiple defendants here. Do you think that the prosecution would be interested in working out some sort of deal with one of them to testify against the others? Or not in this case, not given the gravity of these allegations, not given the alleged roles of each of the perpetrators.

not given the savage nature of this case. And if you look at all the evidence they seem to have, do they even need one to testify against the other? I mean, if they're all allegedly complicit and deserve equal punishment, if you're the prosecution, if they believe these are the people who did it, you think a deal would be something in the works with like, let's say, Mr. Gray? In my opinion, and remember, we all have opinions. In my opinion, yes. And in my experience, yes, they're oftentimes wanting to get to one individual. They may not very much want the sincere Hayes guy because he's the biggest, baddest guy.

But you probably don't want him to cooperate. They're probably like, you know what, death penalty, no negotiation, all bets are off. But generally, my experience has been, if you've got two, three individuals, and we know there are three arrested, but there's probably some other folk that are kind of peripherally involved in doing some wrongdoing here. You can't have done what you did here without having some other parts happening.

So those folk probably already are cooperating. and one of the three could ultimately cooperate as well to get the death penalty off the table, which is a pretty large feat to achieve. And yes, it happens. So in other words, one thing to maybe look out for, Gray, they haven't officially said they're going to pursue the death penalty against him. There's a possibility that they may not in order to seek his testimony, right? I mean... There is a possibility.

And it may be a logistical issue. It may be a logistical issue. I don't practice Arizona, but they may not have been able to file the notice of intent to get the death penalty until he was processed in Arizona. That seems to be possible procedural issue that just it didn't happen solely because of that. We don't know. Is it complicated or delay the whole legal process if you have multiple defendants who are each facing the death penalty? Oh my gosh, yes. As you probably have seen, if you just Google, how much does it cost to process?

prosecuted death penalty case. It gets into the millions. And as a taxpayer, you really got it. And I'm not trying to be political about whether or not one agrees with the death penalty or one does not agree, but it definitely costs, number one. It definitely takes time. Number two. And in my state, we have to be certified. We have to go get extra training in order to handle those kinds of cases. And so there are a lot of different things that require more time, money, and effort. And then you don't always succeed. the prosecutor couldn't go after it, but doesn't mean you're going to succeed in that conviction. I understand why they're going after them for the death. Me too.

Given this case, I mean, it's truly horrific to think about what she went through. And yes, they're innocent until proving guilty. But it does raise the question, the evidence. How strong do you think the evidence is, based on the reporting and the documents that have been filed, how strong do you think the evidence is against these three? Well, sadly, all my cases these days, the technology kills me. So in this case, you have flight records. have the credit card statements. You have cell phone data. You have on star data. You'll have the cell phone dumps. You're also going to have the license plate readers. You're going to have the

flat cameras. You're going to have ABC, the EF, G, H, I, J, K. The fingerprints, the DNA, the fingerprints that are in the car, the car, the one car, and then you have the DNA of the other guy. So science and technology is really going to be the most strong real evidence. And then you have corroborating evidence. So it sure seems to me, They really did a fantastic job because when this first happened, they did not know what. They were all surprised. It took a year for this to be investigated, which is how long it takes because you've got to execute all these search warrants and subpoenas, et cetera, et cetera.

But they were able to connect the dots. And so technology and science is what did it. And you can't, it's going to be very difficult to beat the DNA and the fingerprints on the cup. I have to say, I think it's very interesting that the man who allegedly picked two of these co-defendants up, hasn't been identified. I got to imagine key witness, have to imagine granted some sort of immunity to testify against them, right? Yep. But remember also, there's some ties of Chattanooga, and you know, that these people have a history of, I don't want to say growing up

together, but at least, you know, I found an arrest where the one gentleman was 18 and then I looked like his older brother was 23 and it was a drug case. And it was, I believe, Gray and Hayes that were on that and the Hayes' older brother. Again, I'm just going by Google, so who knows. But by looking at that, you have the relationships. And so we know that with all of that, that's where we're talking about the corroborating and other people cooperating. And that's what helps put two plus two to equal four. I think they would all be tried together. You know, with all that money, I'm going to guess, yes. But if I was the defense attorney, oh, I'd be definitely filing a motion to sever 100%.

But would it be granted, there is a more strong argument because of the complexity of the case, the horrific nature of the case, but then all those witnesses, those expert witnesses that have to testify and just the witnesses in general, for the purposes of cost savings, they may keep it together as one. In a case like that, if they are all tried together, would it kind of be like a joint defense? So all three defense attorneys say, we're coming out together. We're saying none of us, none of our clients had anything to do with it. Or he did it, he did it, he did it.

The evidence is against him. The evidence is really strong against Young, but it's not against McGray. I mean, what would you see something like that? Well, I've tried multiple defendant cases, and it's always an interesting guide. But remember in this case, they're charged with conspiracy. And conspiracy and RICO are both terms of art that I cannot stand because the government came up with those things to make my life more complicated. And I don't appreciate that.

So in a conspiracy case, it doesn't take a whole lot for all them to be in the same bucket. So there may very well be a formal joint defense agreement signed amongst these folk, I doubt it, because yes, we're going to be all about me and my defendant, and we're going to probably punch holes in each of the person's testimony that are out there as we have trial, but I'm only pontificating. I don't know, but in a case like this, I mean, I just was in a court this morning on a case where I saw a co-defendant lawyer and he looked at me like, hmm, and I thought to myself, we should have been working together, but you have to really protect your own client's interests. And sometimes that can conflict. Meg Strickler, love having yum. You break it down so

easily for us to understand. Really, really appreciate you, as always. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.