Sentencing hearing begins for man convicted of killing 8 people in metro Phoenix in 2017

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PHOENIX (AP) — A man convicted of killing eight people in metro Phoenix in 2017 waived his presence in court Monday at the start of the sentencing portion of his trial, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, was found guilty last week of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and sexual assault charges in attacks over a three-week span that targeted random victims and his own mother and stepfather.

The victims in Phoenix and nearby Glendale also 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.

Authorities say they linked Cooksey to the slayings through evidence found at his mother’s apartment in the aftermath of her killing. That evidence included a gun used in several of the killings, vehicle keys belonging to another victim and a victim’s necklace that Cooksey was wearing when he was arrested, investigators said.

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.

It will be up to the jury to decide whether an aggravated circumstance exists and Cooksey is eligible for the death penalty.

In making his case, prosecutor Josh Maxwell pointed out to jurors that Cooksey was convicted of multiple counts of first-degree murder stemming from the 2017 killing spree and had previous armed robbery and manslaughter convictions. Prosecutors also alleged that some victims in the 2017 case were killed in an especially cruel manner.

Questions posed by a defense attorney to a forensic pathologist who reviewed autopsy reports focused heavily on whether the victims felt pain and were conscious before their deaths.

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.