Phoenix – The key to deciphering a series of fatal shootings in the Phoenix area in 2017 occurred when the police were called to an apartment dotted with blood where they arrested a man suspicious to kill his mother and his stepfather.
The authorities say that the evidence found there linked Cleophus Cooksey Jr. to four other murders. The police found a gun used in several of them, a necklace that belongs to a victim and the keys of a woman’s vehicle whose partially naked body was found in a alley.
Cooksey’s trial opened on Monday, more than seven years later, after repeated delays due to pandemic. The 43 -year -old is accused of murder and other positions derived from a total of eight murders in Phoenix and the nearby Glendale in a period of three weeks. If they are convicted, prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty. Cooksey has said that the accusations against him are false and declared themselves innocent.
When opening statements to a jury of 22, 10 of which are alternates, prosecutor Josh Maxwell said the victims had in common that all were vulnerable at the time they were killed.
“The focus of this judgment is one of those classic whodunits, and the evidence will show the person Whodunit, so to speak, it is this individual here, the defendant, Cleophus Emmanuel Cooksey,” said Maxwell pointing to Cooksey.
Defensor lawyer Robert Reinhardt began his opening statement telling jurors about his duty to be fair and impartial and said the Prosecutor’s Office did not point out a reason, qualifying the “random and unrelated” crimes.
“You didn’t hear anything about premeditation either. The State made statements that in incident No. 1, Mr. Cooksey simply went up and shot them, but there is no rhyme or reason for any of that,” Reinhardt said.
In previous years, two other cases of series shooting caused fear in Metro Phoenix, which led some people to remain inside the dusk or stay out of the highways where they occurred. Unlike those cases, the murders accused of Cooksey did not happen for a matter of months and did not generate advertising until their arrest.
Cooksey’s trial is expected to last more than eight months, said Vincent Funari, a spokesman for the Superior Court of Maricopa County.
The first of the eight murders occurred on November 27, 2017. At that time Cooksey had been out of prison for four months after fulfilling time for his role in a theft of Striptease clubs of 2001 that became mortal.
Cooksey knew some of the victims intimately, but others were strangers. Most of the shootings occurred at night and during the night. Police never launched a reason, but said Cooksey was responsible.
Parker Smith and Andrew Remillard were the first victims, shot while sitting inside a vehicle in a parking lot. Five days later, the Salim Richards Security Guard was deadly shot on the road to his girlfriend’s apartment. The prosecutors say that Cooksey and Richards fought physically and Cooksey left with the weapon and necklace of Richards.
Latorrie Beckford and Kristopher Cameron were killed in separate shootings in Apartament complexes in Glendale.
Maria Villanueva was expected in her boyfriend’s apartment in Glendale, but the police say that Cooksey took with her in her vehicle. The next day, his body, naked from the waist down, was found in a Phoenix alley. The authorities say that he had been sexually assaulted and that Cooksey’s DNA was found in his body.
Finally, on December 17, 2017, Cooksey responded to the door when the officers who acted in a shooting report appeared in their mother’s apartment. The officers noticed a lot of blood. Cooksey said he had cut his hand and that it was the only home, according to the police. Cooksey’s mother, Rene Cooksey and the stepfather, Edward Nunn, were found dead. Before being arrested, says the police, Cooksey threatened to cut the throat of an officer.
On the sofa in the living room, the researchers found the weapon of Richards, which was later linked to the murders of Beckford, Cameron and Villanueva. Villanueva’s keys were also found there, and the police say that Cooksey wore the Richards necklace when it was arrested.
In a handwritten letter in January 2020 to a judge about the imminent postponement of his trial, Cooksey said he was a “greater hurry” to demonstrate that “my charges are nothing more than false accusations” and “what better way to do it” an unrection verdict. An aspiring musician said he was not a rapist or murderer: “I am a musical artist.”
Despite wanting to exercise his right to a rapid trial, Cooksey’s case found postponements due to pandemic, which interfered with the preparation, including the ability of experts to evaluate Cooksey.
Previously in the case, their lawyers raised questions about a claim that the police made at the time of their arrest that Cooksey was suspected of a ninth murder. But prosecutors finally refused to accuse Cooksey in death in December 2017 of Jesus Real at his home in Avondale.
According to the police, Real’s sister and cooksey had broken the night before. Prosecutors said they had no reasonable probability of winning a conviction.
The arrest of Cooksey occurred after two series of series shooting in recent years.
From the end of August until the beginning of September 2015, a total of 11 shootings on highways occurred. No one was seriously injured when eight vehicles were beaten with bullets and three others with projectiles such as BBS or pellets. But a 13 -year -old boy was cut by glass.
The charges were later dismissed against the only person accused in the shootings, who won a rare court order that declared him Officially clear of the accusations.
The following case of series shooting occurred almost a period of one year that ended in July 2016. Aaron Juan Saucedo, a bus driver, has been accused of first degree murder and other charges in the attacks, which killed nine people. It was arrested in April 2017.
Prosecutors are Looking for the death penalty Against Saucedo, who declared himself innocent. His judgment is scheduled for December.
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The Associated Press writer Seal Govindarao in Phoenix contributed to this report.
