Jury Convicts Man of 8 Killings

An Arizona jury convicted a man Thursday on eight murder charges for carrying out a string of shootings in the Phoenix area over a three-week span in 2017. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Cleophus Cooksey Jr., the AP reports. The victims in Phoenix and nearby Glendale included Cooksey's mother and stepfather, a security guard walking to his girlfriend's apartment, and a woman who was sexually assaulted before her body was found in an alley. Victims' family members sobbed in court as the verdicts were read, per the Arizona Republic.

Cooksey, who police said is an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but wasn't acquainted with others, authorities said. He has said the accusations against him are false. The first of the eight killings occurred four months after Cooksey was released from prison on a manslaughter conviction for his participation in a 2001 strip club robbery in which an accomplice was fatally shot. The slayings Cooksey was convicted of on Thursday generated no publicity until his arrest. The Republic reports on Cooksey's victims and their killings here.