Prosecutors seek death penalty after spree killer is found guilty for reign of terror including 8 murders

An Arizona jury convicted a man Thursday on eight murder charges for carrying out a string of shootings in metro Phoenix over a three-week span in 2017.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Cleophus Cooksey Jr.

The victims in Phoenix and nearby Glendale included Cooksey’s mother and stepfather, a security guard walking to his girlfriend’s apartment and a woman whose body was found in an alley after she was sexually assaulted.

The jury also found Cooksey guilty of crimes including kidnapping, sexual assault and armed robbery.

Cooksey, described by police as an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but wasn’t acquainted with others, authorities said.

He maintained the allegations against him were false.

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.

In earlier years, two other serial shooting cases sparked fear in metro Phoenix, prompting some people to stay indoors after dark or stay off freeways where they occurred. Unlike those cases, the killings Cooksey was accused of did not occur over a matter of months and generated no publicity until his arrest.

The first victims were Parker Smith and Andrew Remillard, who were fatally shot while sitting inside a vehicle in a parking lot. Five days later, security guard Salim Richards was shot to death while on the way to his girlfriend’s apartment.

Latorrie Beckford and Kristopher Cameron were killed in separate shootings at apartment complexes in Glendale.

Maria Villanueva had been expected at her boyfriend’s apartment in Glendale, but the next day, her body was found naked from the waist down in an alley in Phoenix. Authorities say she had been sexually assaulted and that Cooksey’s DNA was found on her body.

Finally, Cooksey answered the door when officers responded to a shots-fired call at his mother’s apartment and told officers who had noticed a large amount of blood there that he had cut his hand and that he was the only one home. Police say when an officer tried to detain him, Cooksey threatened to slit the officer’s throat. His mother, Rene Cooksey, and stepfather, Edward Nunn, 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.

In a January 2020 handwritten letter to a judge over the impending postponement of his trial, Cooksey said he was in a hurry to prove “my charges are no more than false accusations” and “what better way to do so than” a not-guilty verdict. An aspiring musician, he said he was not a rapist or murderer: “I am a music artist.”