A Maricopa County jury has sentenced Cleophus Cooksey Jr. to death for six of the eight murders he committed during a deadly shooting spree that terrorized metro Phoenix in late 2017.
Cooksey, 43, learned his fate Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court, more than three months after jurors convicted him on eight counts of first-degree murder, along with kidnapping, attempted sexual assault and armed robbery charges. Jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision on the appropriate punishment for two of the murders, resulting in no death sentence for those counts.
County prosecutors said the death sentences reflect the severity and scope of the crimes, which included the killings of Cooksey’s own mother and stepfather. In a statement released after the verdict, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the case underscored why capital punishment remains an option in Arizona for the most extreme crimes.
In addition to the death sentences, Cooksey received more than nine years in prison for the non-capital convictions, according to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
The verdict closes a case that has moved slowly through the courts since Cooksey’s arrest nearly eight years ago. His trial began in April and concluded with guilty verdicts on Sept. 25.
A three-week trail of violence
Authorities say Cooksey’s killing spree unfolded over roughly three weeks in November and December 2017, shortly after his release from prison for a prior armed robbery conviction dating back to 2001.
The first victims, Parker Smith, 21, and Andrew Remillard, 27, were found shot to death inside a car parked at an apartment complex on Nov. 27, 2017. Days later, Salim Richards, 31, was killed while walking to his girlfriend’s apartment.
The violence continued into early December, with separate shootings in Glendale that claimed the lives of Latorrie Beckford, 29, and Kristopher Cameron, 21. Around the same time, the body of Maria Villanueva, 43, was discovered in a Phoenix alley. Investigators later said Cooksey’s DNA linked him to her killing.
The case came to a grim end on Dec. 17, 2017, when police responded to a shots-fired call at an apartment and discovered Cooksey’s mother, Rene Cooksey, 56, and stepfather, Edward Nunn, 54, dead from gunshot wounds. Officers took Cooksey into custody after noticing blood inside the apartment and encountering inconsistencies in his account of what happened.
Prosecutors tied Cooksey to the murders using DNA evidence, firearms analysis and shell casings. Detectives also found property belonging to victims — including stolen jewelry and car keys — in his possession at the time of his arrest.
Investigators have never publicly identified a motive for the killings, saying only that Cooksey appeared to know some victims while others were targeted at random.
A case that reshaped the Valley
The Cooksey murders marked the third major serial shooting case in metro Phoenix within a three-year span, following the freeway shooting incidents of 2015 and the “Serial Street Shooter” case that left nine people dead between 2015 and 2016.
More details about the prosecution and sentencing are available through the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office at its official website, https://www.maricopacountyattorney.org.
With Thursday’s sentencing, one of the Valley’s most disturbing criminal cases moves into its final legal phase, closing a chapter that left eight families grieving and a community searching for answers.
