The sentencing phase for Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, convicted of murdering eight people in metro Phoenix in 2017, begins Monday, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty.
He was found guilty last week of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, and sexual assault, following a three-week crime spree in 2017 that targeted random individuals, his mother, and stepfather.
Among the victims in Phoenix and nearby Glendale were two men found dead in a parked car, a security guard shot walking to his girlfriend’s flat, and a woman kidnapped, sexually assaulted, her body found in an alley.
Evidence found at his mother’s apartment post-killing linked Cooksey to the slayings: a gun used in several attacks, vehicle keys of another victim, and a victim’s necklace Cooksey wore upon arrest.
Authorities never offered a motive.
Cooksey, an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but he wasn’t acquainted with others, police said. He has maintained his innocence.
The killings started four months after Cooksey was released from prison on a manslaughter conviction for his participation in a 2001 strip club robbery in which an accomplice was fatally shot.
The first victims, Parker Smith, 21, and Andrew Remillard, 27, were found Nov. 27, 2017. They had been fatally shot while sitting in a vehicle in a parking lot. Five days later, security guard Salim Richards, 31, was shot to death while walking to his girlfriend’s apartment.
Over the next two weeks, Latorrie Beckford, 29, and Kristopher Cameron, 21, were killed in separate shootings at apartment complexes in Glendale, and the body of Maria Villanueva, 43, was found naked from the waist down in an alley in Phoenix. Authorities said Cooksey’s DNA was found on her body.
Finally, on Dec. 17, 2017, Cooksey answered the door when officers responded to a shots-fired call at his mother’s apartment. He told officers who had noticed a large amount of blood that he had cut his hand and was the only one home. Police say when an officer tried to detain him, Cooksey threatened to slit the officer’s throat. Rene Cooksey, 56, and Edward Nunn, 54, were found dead.
Cooksey’s arrest followed two other serial shooting cases in metro Phoenix.
In 2015, 11 shootings occurred on Phoenix-area freeways between late August and early September. No one was seriously injured, and charges were later dismissed against the only person charged.
The next case occurred over nearly a one-year period ending in July 2016. Bus driver Aaron Juan Saucedo was arrested in April 2017 and charged with first-degree murder in attacks that killed nine people.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Saucedo, with a trial scheduled for December. He has declared his innocence.
