When Judy Corcoran would sit down at the poker table, she was known to be an intimidating player.

“She would let you know you crossed the line,” said friend and fellow poker enthusiast, Chad McNeil.

Despite the “all business” attitude during the poker games she loved to play, he said Corcoran was “a beautiful person” with a “heart like no other,” McNeil said.

Corcoran, along with 52-year-old Fidel Sanchez, were victims in two Federal Boulevard stabbings that occurred on Thursday — lives lost in what prosecutors said on Friday were “unprovoked and extremely violent” attacks.

West 32nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard

Denver police arrested Vinchenzo Moscoso, 29, on Thursday on suspicion of first-degree murder in the two stabbing deaths that occurred only two miles from each other. Prosecutors asked a judge for a $5 million bond for the suspect.

The incidents began around 5 a.m. Thursday, when police responded to a reported stabbing in an RTD bus in the 3200 block of North Federal Boulevard, according to Moscoso’s arrest warrant.

Sanchez was found dead on the bus with stab wounds to the neck.

The suspect had entered the bus and paid for a $6 day pass, according to the bus driver. He walked to the back of the bus and “the next thing she knew” people were yelling to stop the vehicle and call 911.

Police found blood-soaked clothes outside of the bus that appeared to be cut off of the victim, according to the warrant. The victim had been seated in the middle of the bus with headphones on, according to another witness. He saw a “Hispanic gentleman” standing above the victim and blood everywhere.

The suspect had “immediately, without provocation or warning began stabbing the victim in the left side of his neck, with an object in his right hand,” according to witnesses cited in the warrant.

The suspect fled to the back of the bus. He wore a dark colored baseball hat with a metallic type design or logo on the front, a lighter colored Nike hoody, dark jeans and dark tennis shoes with white detailing. He carried a dark colored backpack, authorities said.

The Denver Officer of the Medical Examiner ruled Sanchez’s cause of death as sharp force injuries to the left side of the neck.

West 50th Avenue

Denver police responded to another report of a fatal stabbing around 10 a.m. Thursday in the 5000 block of Federal Boulevard, near Regis University.

A witness had seen the victim — an elderly lady believed to be Corcoran — laying on the ground, bleeding with the suspect standing by.

Moscoso was found nearby and allegedly fit the suspect description, authorities said, adding his hands were covered in blood and he had a bloody knife in his pocket.

The witness positively identified Moscoso as the man standing by the body, authorities added.

Auhorities said Moscoso, who was transported to the Denver Police Department, wore clothes that fit the description of the bus stabbing suspect. He also had a $6 day fare bus pass in his pocket that had the correct bus number, as well as a bloody knife.

14 previous cases

Moscoso has at least 14 cases filed against him since 2012, according to court records.

In March 2019, Lakewood police arrested Moscoso, along with another man, for robbing a Subway at 890 Wadsworth at gunpoint. The two made off with $121.23 in cash, including dollars and change from the tip jar. Moscoso was sentenced to four years in prison for aggravated robbery.

The case originally contained 12 charges including theft, tampering with evidence, menacing with a weapon, six counts of robbery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Eleven charges were dropped.

On Feb. 11, 2022, Denver police arrested him for breaking the windows and kicking the front door of a home at 52nd and North Shoshone Street, according to court records.

The case was originally a felony charge but was pleaded down to a misdemeanor. He was put on two years of probation.

He later had a DUI in the summer of 2022 for which he was sentenced to 48 hours of community service, records show. He was initially sentenced to a year in jail and two years probation, but the sentence was suspended. Both 2022 cases were resolved in September of that year.

In court Friday, Moscoso’s appeared in handcuffs in a grey jail outfit and yawned.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Thayer Bell and Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeCecco asked District Judge Karen Brody for a $5 million bond.

She expressed “grave concerns” about community safety and agreed to set a $2.5 million bond, cash only, with maximum supervision.

“In light that he’s on parole already, I think there are grave concerns about flight risk and community safety,” Brody said.

Moscoso looked down the entire time.

He’s scheduled to appear in court again Thursday, Sept. 21.

The loss of a friend and brother

Sanchez’s brother, Edgar Sanchez, said that it was a random killing during Moscoso’s court hearing on Friday. His brother was in a position where he was getting his life together.

“We are devastated. He was ready to turn the page,” he said.

Fidel Sanchez had just gotten an overnight job loading trucks and was on the bus headed to his mother’s house when he was killed, Edgar Sanchez said. He had three children.

“He was my big brother,” Sanchez said.

McNeil — along with many vocal poker friends on social media — cannot believe Corcoran was killed.

“There is no reason for this,” McNeil said.

McNeil said he met Corcoran in 2012 and had grown a “special bond” since, and, though poker buddies, the two kept in touch. Corcoran and her husband lived part-time between Denver and North Carolina, but she always found time to reach out, he said.

She was there for him while he was on life support — a friend like no other, he said.

A plethora of her poker pals got together at Jake’s Roadhouse to celebrate her life and mourn such a “beautiful soul.” They also placed a memorial cross of playing cards near the incident site.

“If more people were like her, none of this nonsense would have happened,” McNeil said.