Verdict reached in trial for Arizona man charged with 8 counts of murder

PHOENIX — The jury in the trial of an Arizona man charged with 8 counts of first-degree murder has reached a verdict, court officials say.

A public information officer for the Judicial Branch of Arizona in Maricopa County told 12News the jury reached a verdict in the trial of Cleophus Cooksey Jr., who is accused of carrying out a three-week killing spree in 2017.

The verdict will be read in the morning on Thursday. 

Cooksey is charged with eight counts of first-degree murder and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Prosecutors have charged Cooksey with killing eight people across the Valley between November and December 2017. The charges also include armed robbery, sexual assault and kidnapping.

During opening statements, prosecutors laid out a case built on DNA, ballistics, cellphone data, stolen property, and eyewitness testimony. Investigators say Cooksey was found, covered in blood, at one murder scene, with the victims—his mother and her husband—dead inside.

According to police, the first victims were two men shot and killed in a car near Indian School Road.

Five days later, a security guard named Salim Richards was killed and robbed. Detectives say Cooksey took a necklace and a gun from that scene. The stolen gun was later connected to five more murders.

Cooksey had been out of prison for about 18 months at the time of the killings, following a 16-year sentence for a robbery that resulted in the death of an accomplice.

His defense attorney challenged the prosecution’s case in opening statements, questioning the reliability of witnesses and arguing that the state lacked evidence of premeditation required for first-degree murder convictions.

Although police have linked Cooksey to a ninth homicide, prosecutors have only filed charges for eight. 

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has not explained why the ninth case was excluded, citing the ongoing trial.

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