phoenix — An Arizona jury on Thursday sentenced a man to death in a series of killings in metro Phoenix over a three-week period in 2017, marking the end of a nearly seven-month trial over the attacks that targeted random victims and the defendant’s mother and stepfather.
Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, was convicted in late September of murder in eight murders. He was also convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted sexual assault charges stemming from the attacks in Phoenix and nearby Glendale.
Jurors sentenced Cooksey to death in six of the eight murders for which he was convicted. The jury has not yet decided on the penalty for convicting him of killing his mother and stepfather.
The victims included two men who were found dead in a parked car, a security guard who was shot while walking to his girlfriend’s apartment, and a woman who was kidnapped, and whose body was found in an alley after police said she had been sexually assaulted.
Authorities say they linked Cooksey to the killings through evidence found in his mother’s apartment following her murder. Investigators said evidence included a gun used in several of the killings, car keys belonging to another victim and the victim’s necklace that Cooksey was wearing when he was arrested.
The authorities never provided any motive.
Police said Cooksey, an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but was not acquainted with others. He has maintained his innocence.
The first two victims, Parker Smith, 21, and Andrew Remillard, 27, were found on November 27, 2017. They were shot to death while sitting in a car in the parking lot. Five days later, security guard Slim Richards, 31, was shot dead while walking to his girlfriend’s apartment.
Over the next two weeks, Latorre Bickford, 29, and Christopher 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 Coxy’s DNA was found on her body.
Finally, on December 17, 2017, Cooksey opened the door when officers responded to a shooting call at his mother’s apartment. He told the officers, who noticed a large amount of blood, that he had cut his hand and was the only one in the house. Police say when an officer tried to arrest him, Cooksey threatened to cut the officer’s throat. Renee Cooksey, 56, and stepfather Edward Nunn, 54, were found dead.
Cooksey’s arrest came on the heels of two other shooting cases in metro Phoenix.
In 2015, 11 shootings occurred on Phoenix-area highways between late August and early September. No one was seriously injured, and charges were later dropped against the only person charged.
The next case occurred over the course of about a year and ended in July 2016. Bus driver Aaron Juan Saucedo was arrested in April 2017 and charged with murder in the attacks that killed nine people.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Saucedo, and his trial is scheduled for December. He declared his innocence.