Two men and one woman were charged with capital murder Saturday in the slaying and robbery of a taxi driver, whose stabbed body was found partially burned in a field in Justin on Thursday.

The three suspects, William Kirk Stephens, Noah Robert Whitehead and Mariesha Lynne Ohlfs, are each being held on $250,000 bond in Denton County Jail.

Noah Whitehead

William Stephens

Justin firefighters were extinguishing a grassfire at State Highway 114 and John Day Road on Thursday night when they found the body of Hooshang Vatanpour, a taxi driver from Allen.

Investigators learned that two other robberies of taxi drivers had occurred nearby in the Denton County portion of Fort Worth and that both vehicles had been abandoned on John Day Road, said Tom Reedy, Denton County sheriff’s spokesman.

Mariesha Ohlfs

Stephens, 22, lived in the neighborhood where tracking dogs had led investigators, Reedy said.

With the help of witnesses, investigators said they identified Stephens in a surveillance video using a stolen credit card from one of the previous robberies.

Stephens wasn’t at his listed address in Haslet, but a tipster led investigators to a Haltom City residence, Reedy said.

Vatanpour had picked up two men near a Dallas bus station Thursday to take them to Wichita Falls, according to taxicab company records.

Stephens told investigators he and his friend Whitehead, 23, were in Vatanpour’s vehicle when the taxi driver was struck in the head with a bottle, then stabbed on the chest and neck, according to the Denton County Sheriff’s Office affidavit.

The affidavit states that Vatanpour’s credit cards, cash and other belongings were removed and Whitehead contacted Ohlfs, 32, to bring gasoline and a shovel to their location.

Stephens and Whitehead drove Vatanpour’s taxi a mile away and Ohlfs took the two friends to Stephens’ residence in Haslet, a little more than two miles from the site of Vatanpour’s body, according to the affidavit.

The abandoned taxi had large amounts of blood in the front and rear seats, and a broken bottle used in the attack, Reedy said.

Whitehead and Ohlfs were found in an Argyle residence and were arrested early Saturday, Reedy said.

A search warrant of the Argyle home produced some personal property taken from the taxi driver, he said.

Whitehead and Stephens have had run-ins with Denton County law enforcement.

Whitehead was released from the county jail less than a month ago after being charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, and his previous charges in the last few years include theft and resisting arrest, according to county records.

Stephens has been in the Denton County Jail twice before on vehicle burglary charges, records state.

The Denton County Sheriff’s Office, Denton County Fire Marshal’s Office and the Texas Rangers had worked on the investigation nonstop since the body was found Thursday night, Reedy said.

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com.