Phoenix (AP) — In the summer of 2015, metro Phoenix grappled with two serial shooting cases whose details had trickled out to the public. A series of freeway shootings and a separate string of random nighttime attacks sowed fear that led some people to stay indoors after dark or stay off the freeways where they occurred.
Then, out of the blue, investigators unveiled a third case in early 2018, accusing a man of killing eight people in Phoenix and nearby Glendale over three weeks in attacks that had generated no publicity until his arrest.
On Thursday, a jury in Phoenix convicted Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, of murder in all eight killings that targeted random victims and the defendant’s mother and stepfather. He also was convicted of kidnapping, sexual assault and armed robbery charges.
The sentencing portion of his trial is scheduled to begin Monday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The victims in Phoenix and nearby Glendale included two men found dead in a parked car, a security guard shot while walking to his girlfriend’s apartment and a woman who was kidnapped, her body found in an alley after she was sexually assaulted. Cooksey, an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but wasn’t acquainted with others, police said. Authorities never offered a motive.
Cooksey looked down at the defense table as the verdict was read. He'd maintained his innocence throughout the trial that began in May.
‘He took my mom’
Adriana Rodriguez, the daughter of victim Maria Villanueva, said after the verdict her family was finally getting closure, a day they had feared would never come.
“He took my mom, the only support system that I had,” Rodriguez added as she broke into tears.
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.
A friend of Cooksey's mother, Rene Cooksey, and stepfather, Edward Nunn, said the defendant deserved a death sentence. Eric Hampton said he watched Cooksey grow up and attended Thursday's hearing to see if the defendant showed sympathy for his victims.
“I thought maybe he had a little heart but he doesn't have any heart at all, you know, to actually do these things to people and actually the worst part, kill your own mom,” Hampton said outside the courthouse.
“He’s a monster and I’m just hoping that when the sentencing phase of this is over that, you know, that they put him to sleep,” he added.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Cooksey, declined to comment on the verdict.
The Associated Press left phone and email messages for Robert Reinhardt, an attorney for Cooksey.
A trail of victims
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 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 Nunn, 54, were found dead.
On the sofa in the living room, investigators said they found Richards’ gun, which was later linked to the killings of Beckford, Cameron and Villanueva. The keys to Villanueva’s vehicle also were found there, and police say Cooksey was wearing Richards’ necklace when he was arrested.
Police also suspected Cooksey of a ninth killing — that of his ex-girlfriend’s brother. But prosecutors ultimately declined to charge him in the December 2017 shooting death of Jesus Real at his home in Avondale.
Cooksey’s trial was repeatedly delayed by the pandemic. In a January 2020 handwritten letter to a judge, Cooksey said he was in a hurry to prove “my charges are no more than false accusations.” He said he was not a rapist or murderer: “I am a music artist.”
Earlier serial shootings in Phoenix
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.