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

Phoenix – A man found guilty of having killed eight people in the Phoenix metro in 2017 is scheduled for Monday to start the conviction of his trial, where prosecutors ask for the death penalty.

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

The victims of Phoenix and Glendale nearby also included two men found dead in a parked car, a security guard shot down by walking towards the apartment of his girlfriend and a woman who was kidnapped, her body found in an alley after being sexually assaulted.

The authorities say they have linked Cooksey to the killings thanks to evidence found in his mother’s apartment in the aftermath of his murder. This evidence included a weapon used in several of the murders, vehicle keys belonging to another victim and a victim necklace that Cooksey wore during his arrest, investigators said.

The authorities have never offered reason.

Cooksey, a budding musician, knew some of the victims, but he did not know others, the police said. He maintained his innocence.

The killings began four months after the release of Cooksey in prison for conviction for manslaughter for his participation in a 2001 strip club flight in which an accomplice was fatally shot.

The first victims, Parker Smith, 21, and Andrew Remillard, 27, were found on November 27, 2017. They had been deadly killed when they were sitting in a vehicle in a parking lot. Five days later, the security guard Salim Richards, 31, was killed while walking towards his girlfriend’s apartment.

During the following two weeks, Latorrie Beckford, 29, and Kristopher Cameron, 21, were killed in separate fire in apartment complexes in Glendale, and the body of Maria Villanueva, 43, was found naked in the size in an alley of Phoenix. Authorities said Cooksey’s DNA was found on his body.

Finally, on December 17, 2017, Cooksey responded to the door when the police answered a call drawn in his mother’s apartment. He told the police who had noticed a large amount of blood that he had cut off and was the only house. According to the police, when an officer tried to hold him, Cooksey threatened to split the officer’s throat. René Cooksey, 56, and Edward Nunn, 54, were found dead.

The arrest of Cooksey followed two other cases of series shooting in the Phoenix metro.

In 2015, 11 shots took place on highways in the Phoenix region between the end of August and early September. No one was seriously injured and the charges were then dismissed against the only charged person.

The following case occurred over a period of one year ending in July 2016. Bus driver Aaron Juan Saucedo was arrested in April 2017 and accused of first degree murder in attacks that killed nine people.

Prosecutors ask for the death penalty against Saucedo, with a scheduled trial for December. He declared his innocence.