DENVER, April 6 -- Two 18-year-old men are formally charged with first-degree murder in the beating death of Denver taxi driver Moustapha Marouf eight days ago. Demetris O'Neal and Christopher Buchanan, and two other men also in custody, are accused of fatally kicking and beating Marouf in a dispute over a parking space and stuffing his body into the trunk of his cab.
Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter said today the two other suspects, 19-year-old Bruce Mingo and 18-year-old Brett Williams, are jailed without bond while prosecutors decide what to charge them with. The 32-year-old Marouf was the second African immigrant slain in Denver since last fall. A third was slashed in his taxi last weekend by a man and woman he drove to Colorado Springs. Two skinheads are charged with first-degree murder in the racially motivated shooting death of Oumar Dia ('JAH') at a downtown bus stop. A woman who tried to help Dia was shot and paralyzed. Early Sunday, Denver cabbie Kahsay Araya -- another African immigrant -- was slashed and robbed of his taxi after driving a couple from Denver to Colorado Springs. The cab was found abandoned several hours later and the couple, who never paid Araya the $127 fare, is still at large. ---
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