Phoenix police: Serial killing suspect tied to 9 attacks

A serial killing suspect shot and killed nine people, including his own mother, and used a victim’s gun in some of the slayings that unfolded in a three-week span late last year, authorities said Thursday.

Shell casings, DNA, stolen jewelry and a cellphone taken from a victim were among the pieces of evidence that investigators used to tie Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 35, to the killings, according to court documents.

“It should appall every one of us in the room that he managed to kill nine people period, let alone in such a short period of three weeks,” said Sgt. Jonathan Howard, a Phoenix police spokesman.

The seven men and two women were shot between Nov. 27 and Dec. 17 in their homes, suburban apartment complexes, in a parked car or while outside, the documents state.

Cooksey, described by police as an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but investigators were still trying to determine motives in a few of the attacks, according to police officials in Phoenix, Glendale and Avondale.

A number of details were withheld by police who cited the ongoing investigation.

The victims included Jesus Real, 25, the brother of Cooksey’s ex-girlfriend. Real was asleep in his Avondale home on Dec. 11 when he was shot twice in the face. Avondale police say Real’s sister and Cooksey had broken up the night before.

Another victim, 43-year-old Maria Villanueva, was seen on surveillance video arriving at a Glendale apartment complex on Dec. 15 and then leaving with an unknown man in the driver’s seat.

Her partially nude body was found the next morning in a Phoenix alley and her car was found abandoned at another complex in Glendale.

Investigators found a cellphone and a bloody men’s shirt inside. DNA on the shirt matched Cooksey’s, court documents said. The cellphone was also confirmed to be his.

Cooksey was arrested Dec. 17 for the shooting deaths of his mother and stepfather in their home and has been jailed since then on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of being a felon in possession of a weapon.

Gary Beren, an attorney who represents Cooksey, didn’t immediately return a phone call and email seeking comment.

Cooksey was rebooked into jail Thursday in the seven additional homicide cases, Howard said. He was being held on a $5 million bond, according to a court document.

“I’m just proud as heck that he’s off the street,” said Glendale police Chief Rick St. John.

Cooksey previously served 16 years in prison for manslaughter and armed robbery and had been free for 18 months, authorities said.

It’s the second time in the past few years that Phoenix has dealt with serial killings. Aaron Juan Saucedo has been charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in drive-by shootings in 2015 and 2016 that left nine people dead and two others wounded.

Saucedo has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.

Here are more details about the serial killing case:

Nov. 27, 2017 – Andrew Remillard, 27, and Parker Smith, 21, are found dead with gunshot wounds to the head inside a parked car in Phoenix.

Dec. 2, 2017 – Salim Richards, 31, is shot and killed while walking in west Phoenix. His 9mm Glock handgun and a yellow necklace are missing.

Dec. 11, 2017 – Jesus Real, 25, the brother of Cooksey’s ex-girlfriend, is found in bed with two gunshot wounds to the face at his Avondale home.

Dec. 13, 2017 – Latorrie Beckford, 29, is found shot twice in the head in the common area of a Glendale apartment complex.

Dec. 15, 2017 – Kristopher Cameron, 21, is shot and killed upon arriving at a Glendale apartment complex to complete a drug transaction with Cooksey, police say.

Dec. 15, 2017 – About 90 minutes after the fatal shooting of Cameron, Maria Villanueva, 43, parks her car at another complex two miles away. Surveillance cameras show an unknown man approach her and then drive away in Villanueva’s car with her in the front passenger seat. She is found partially nude and shot to death in a Phoenix alley the next morning.

Dec. 17, 2017 – Police responding to gunfire at a central Phoenix apartment find Cooksey at the scene and, after a brief altercation, take him into custody. They find the bodies of his mother Rene Cooksey, 56, and her husband, Edward Nunn, 54, behind the front door. Both had been shot to death.