Man accused of 8 fatal shootings in Phoenix area faces jury verdict following murder trial

A man tried for murder after he was accused of killing eight people in the metro Phoenix area in 2017 is set to hear a jury's verdict against him on Thursday.

Cleophus Cooksey Jr.'s trial came more than seven years after the killings due to repeated delays caused by the pandemic.

The 43-year-old is accused of murder and other charges stemming from the fatal shootings in Phoenix and nearby Glendale over a three-week span. If he is convicted, prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

Cooksey has said the allegations against him are false and pleaded not guilty.

The first of the eight killings happened Nov. 27, 2017. By that point, Cooksey had been out of prison for four months after serving time for his role in a 2001 strip club robbery that turned deadly.

Cooksey knew some of the victims intimately, but others were strangers. Police never released a motive.

The key to the case came when police were called to a blood-spattered apartment where they arrested Cooksey on suspicion of killing his mother and stepfather, authorities said.

Evidence found there linked him to four other killings, they said. Police found a gun used in several of the crimes, a necklace belonging to a victim and the vehicle keys of a woman whose partially nude body was found in an alley.