Arraignment set for woman accused in fatal cab driver shooting

By Dave Toplikar

Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011 | 11:50 a.m.

One of two women accused in the March shooting death of Tesfaye Arze, a North Las Vegas taxicab driver, will be arraigned on murder and robbery charges in about two weeks.

Felicia Mosley, 18, who was arrested April 4 in Orlando, Fla., is scheduled to be arraigned on multiple felony charges related to Arze's death at 8 a.m. Sept. 15 before Judge Melanie Tobiasson in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Mosley was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on May 29 on charges of murder with a deadly weapon, two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon. She is being held without bail.

Mosley is thought to be one of two women who were seen in a surveillance video who took a ride in Arze’s cab before the shooting.

The other woman, Autumn Dawn Murry, 21, was arrested on March 11 following a tip. Murry was wearing a wig at the time of her arrest, police said.

Police have said they believe robbery was the motive in Arze’s shooting. An hour before the alleged robbery and murder of Arze, Murry is accused of robbing the Mini Mart at 4563 E. Russell Road shortly before 2:30 a.m. Police said Arze, 30, was shot about an hour later that same morning.

Police found Arze lying on the ground outside a cab that was still running with its lights on in front of 6349 High Sierra Ave. According to the surveillance video from the cab, Arze arrived at High Sierra with the two suspects about 3:34 a.m. that morning.

Police said a trip sheet inside the cab indicated Arze had picked up at least 15 fares prior to the suspects and had collected about $224.60. However, no money was located in the cab or on Arze's person, indicating he had been the victim of a robbery, police said.

Police also said surveillance video from a residence across the street from the scene shows a suspect leaning over Arze's body, possibly going through his pockets. A coroner's autopsy found the cause of death to be a gunshot to the head.

Police said Murry's driver's license shows her home address to be 6338 Bursting Nova Court, which is about one block from the murder scene.

Police said they had found that the Mini Mart located at 4563 E. Russell Road had been robbed at gunpoint at 2:20 a.m. that morning, with about $500 taken in that robbery. Detectives said the video of the robbery showed a suspect whose physical appearance was consistent with that of Murry and that Murry was identified by the clerk in a photo line-up.

In that robbery, police allege that Murry entered that business, approached the clerk and produced a silver and black semi-automatic handgun from her front right waistband and aimed it at the clerk.

Police allege that is consistent with the cab video, which shows Murry grabbing an unknown object from the same waist band area as she left the cab just prior to Arze's murder.

Police said that after the Mini Mart robbery, Murry fled the scene in a dark sedan, but the vehicle struck the median, causing a tire to blow out.

Police said they conducted an interview with a woman who was a friend of Murry's, who said the two met March 9 at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino. Police said at that meeting, Murry confided to the woman that she and "Felicia" had taken a ride in a taxi cab to the area of her house, then attempted to skip paying for the cab.

The police report said the two women "got into a scuffle with the driver (Arze) and Autumn shot him in the head with a gun she had in her waistband."

The police report, in a later interview with Mosley's boyfriend, Saul Moran, says that Moran told them that the two women tried to get out of the cab without paying for the fare "and the cab driver grabbed Felicia and tried to stop her from leaving. Autumn then shot the driver in the head."

Murry remains in jail without bail after being indicted in the shooting by a grand jury on counts of burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, murder with use of a deadly weapon and two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon, according to the indictment filed in March in Clark County District Court.

Murry's murder trial is scheduled for 1 p.m. April 2, 2012, before Clark County District Judge Stefany Miley.