CHARGE DROPPED IN SLAYING INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE CITED.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Citing insufficient evidence, prosecutors Thursday dropped a murder charge against one of two young men accused in the slaying of a woman cab driver who was burned to death in her taxi.

An informant told detectives that 24-year-old Thomas Sylvester Murray Jr. had confessed to her that he set the cab on fire, then walked to his mother's house and watched the vehicle burn, but Murray's attorney said Murray's mother lives at least five miles away from the murder scene.

``I provided the District Attorney's Office with information two months ago that pointed away from our client,'' said James Bates, Murray's attorney.

Murray, who lives in Palmdale, had been charged in the Jan. 6 slaying of 28-year-old taxi driver Crystal Angelica Stahl, whose body was found in the back seat of the burning cab in a church parking lot in the 37700 block of Palm Vista Avenue.

The informant's statement was not the main factor in dropping the charge, the prosecutor said.

``Some physical evidence collected at the scene has not come back to him,'' Deputy District Attorney Lisa Chung said Thursday. ``Right now we don't feel comfortable moving forward . . . in terms of realistically seeking a chance of conviction.''

Also charged in the case is Stahl's 18-year-old ex-boyfriend, Ryan Willis of Palmdale, who has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities have not disclosed what they think was the motive behind the slaying.

``Willis is her ex-boyfriend. It was a volatile relationship,'' Chung said.

Murray still faces charges that he, four other men and a woman were involved in the kidnap and rape of the female informant in the murder case.

The informant had told investigators that someone, whom she identified by a nickname, confessed to her about the Stahl slaying, Bates said.

``(She) didn't identify Murray at the time. It wasn't until after the kidnapping case that she said it was Murray,'' Bates said.

Murray's father, Thomas Murray Sr., said his son is innocent in both cases.

``What makes it so bad is she never knew my son before the rape case, so how could she place him on the murder?'' the elder Murray said.

The kidnapping case had been previously dismissed by Judge Steve Ogden, who expressed doubts about the victim's credibility, but prosecutors refiled the charges for a hearing before Judge Carol Koppel, who ruled there was enough evidence to warrant a trial.

An arrest warrant has been issued for the female defendant, Wendy Martin, who showed up for the start of the second preliminary hearing in October but left the courthouse before the hearing began.

In the kidnap and rape case, prosecutors said the informant was kidnapped twice over the Memorial Day weekend and raped once. She said she was kidnapped a third time on June 5 and raped again.

A defense attorney said the informant was staying at a local hotel as part of a witness relocation program because of the murder case. The victim invited people to the hotel, some of whom were witnesses and defendants, before the alleged offenses occurred.