Scottsdale man gets 2 life sentences for killing cab driver at casino
Oct 28, 2022, 12:00 PM
Destiney Rae Montoya, 22, was sentenced to a year in prison for her role as a social media recruiter for human smuggling. (Pexels Photo)
(Pexels Photo)
PHOENIX – A Scottsdale man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for killing a cab driver during a carjacking outside a local casino, authorities said.
Gabriel Milford Kavoka, 39, previously pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder and carjacking resulting in death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in a press release.
A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix sentenced him to two concurrent life sentences. It was a federal case because Kavoka is an enrolled member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
After hailing a ride to Casino Arizona on Aug. 21, 2019, Kavoka shot the driver and took off in the taxi, prosecutors said. The casino is located on tribal land between Scottsdale and Mesa, near the Loop 101 Pima Freeway and McKellips Road.
Kavoka was arrested in Mesa after leading police on a high-speed chase that ended when he crashed the cab into a patrol vehicle.
The Salt River Police Department investigated the case with help from the Mesa Police Department.
