A robbery suspect who’s wanted for questioning in connection to the Oct. 17 shooting death of 21-year-old ASU student Zachary Marco was arrested in Nevada on Tuesday.
Tempe Police were searching for 21-year-old Preston Aiookhai Huteson in connection to a separate robbery near Lemon Street and Dorsey Lane that was committed several hours before Marco’s shooting.
Huteson was arrested by a U.S. Marshals Service task force in Clark County, Nev., Tempe Police spokesman Sgt. Steve Carbajal said.
The arrest happened around 11 a.m. Tuesday, about six miles away from the Las Vegas Strip, said Officer Barbara Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Municipal Police Department.
Huteson was held in custody in the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas on a charge of being a fugitive from justice, Morgan said.
On the night of Oct. 17, Marco was walking from the Tempe campus to his apartment around 9:30 p.m. when he was shot and killed in an apparent robbery attempt on the 1100 block of East University Drive, Carbajal said.
Carbajal said the robbery and shooting could be related because of their similar timing, location and motive.
“We’d love to have that conversation with him,” Carbajal said, although there is nothing specifically linking Huteson to Marco’s death.
Before this week’s arrest, Huteson was arrested on Oct. 24 on suspicion of driving with an expired license plate, driving on a suspended license and with no proof of insurance, and was booked into the Las Vegas Detention Center, according to Who’s Arrested, an online public criminal record database.
Huteson was released from the Las Vegas Detention Center shortly after that arrest.
After his arrest Tuesday, Huteson was booked into the Clark County Detention Center and denied bail in a Thursday hearing.
Huteson’s next scheduled court hearing is Dec. 4, according to Clark County records.
Carbajal said Tempe Police did not yet know whether Huteson would be extradited to Arizona in the robbery case.
Huteson’s Arizona arrest record includes 2008 charges of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, which were later dismissed by the county attorney; and a 2009 misdemeanor charge of threatening or intimidating, which Huteson pleaded guilty to and was sentenced to probation.
An Arizona warrant for Huteson’s arrest was issued March 3 after he failed to appear at a violation hearing related to the threatening or intimidating charge, but it was quashed by the state after he appeared at a hearing to revoke his probation.
Reach the reporter at mhendley@asu.edu
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