In brief
An Arizona jury has sentenced Cleophus Cooksey Jr. to death for his role in a string of killings that claimed eight lives during a chaotic three-week period in late 2017. Found guilty of various charges including murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault, Cooksey's most heinous crimes included the slaying of his own mother and stepfather. Jurors delivered a unanimous decision on six of the eight murder counts, leaving future sentencing options open for the other two. Cooksey's sentencing is a conclusion to a trial that shed light on crimes involving random victims and personal relationships. Prosecutors continue to consider appeals regarding the remaining convictions, pointing to the need for harsh penalties in cases of extreme violence.
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona jury on Thursday sentenced a man to death in a string of killings in metro Phoenix during a three-week span in 2017, marking the end of a seven-month trial over attacks that targeted random victims and the defendant’s own mother and stepfather.
Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, was found guilty in late September of murder in eight killings. He also was 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 killings for which he was convicted of murder. The jury was undecided on the punishment for his convictions in the killings of his mother and stepfather.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell is considering whether to seek a sentencing retrial on the two murder convictions involving Cooksey’s mother and stepfather or drop the effort to seek the death penalty and let a judge impose life sentences on those two counts.
The victims 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 police say she was sexually assaulted.
Authorities say they linked Cooksey to the killings 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.
“Anyone who questions why we need the death penalty needs to look no further than this case,” Mitchell said in a statement. “It takes a special kind of evil to prey upon the vulnerable and needlessly take the lives of eight innocent people. Death is the only just punishment for him, and we will do everything in our power to see it carried through.”
