On a Tuesday morning in January 2018, the discovery of two men in a parked car near Desert Star Park in Phoenix, Arizona, began to unravel a tragic story of a deadly setup. Frederick Eriven, a 23-year-old male, was found inside the vehicle, having been fatally shot. Alongside him was his friend, 23-year-old Marcel Cowans, who had also succumbed to gunshot wounds.
The car they were in belonged to Marcel.
What initially appeared to be a straightforward homicide investigation soon revealed a more sinister plot. Investigators determined that Eriven and Cowans had been tricked into coming to the location under the false pretense of a drug transaction. The actual motive, however, was robbery. The plan was allegedly orchestrated by three individuals who had no intention of a legitimate deal but instead planned to rob the two men.
The investigation led to the arrests of Julian Perry, Paul Grant, and David Reyes in March of 2018. According to police, Perry was the one who entered the car and shot both Eriven and Cowans. Grant's role was to act as a lookout and to steal personal belongings from the victims. Reyes served as the getaway driver for the operation. All three were subsequently charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery. The investigation also connected them to the separate shooting death of another man in the same area. In October 2022, Julian Perry was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, including the deaths of Frederick Eriven and Marcel Cowans. The legal proceedings for the other two suspects have been separate, with reports indicating that David Reyes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2019.
