Convicted felon charged
Accused man in jail since December deaths of mother and stepfather
Cleophus Cooksey Jr., a man accused in a string of Valley shooting deaths late last year, was formally charged on Monday with eight counts of murder.
A man police tied to a string of Phoenix-area shooting deaths late last year has been formally charged with eight counts of murder and a host of other felony crimes.
The indictment against Cleophus Cooksey Jr. was filed Thursday but became publicly available Monday.
Police say that Cooksey was responsible for fatally shooting nine people, though he’s charged in only eight killings. He has been jailed since his mid-December arrest in the deaths of his mother and stepfather.
As of Monday, prosecutors had not filed charges against Cooksey in the death of Jesus Bonifacio Real, the brother of Cooksey’s ex-girlfriend. Police in January named Real as one of Cooksey’s victims.
Real, 25, was fatally shot Dec. 11 at a home near 500 E. Harrison Drive in Avondale.
The shooter fled the apartment before officers arrived.
In a Dec. 19 interview described in court records, an Avondale officer asked Cooksey whether he was aware of the killing of Jesus Real.
“Yeah. There was a, something happened. Um. Yeah I remember …” he replied, pausing for a moment while shaking his head up and down, investigators wrote.
“I don’t remember much but um. Somebody said you guy’s wanted, there was something about. You guys never found anybody,” he continued, according to the records.
Cooksey declined knowing the name of the person slain — Real — at which point the investigator reminded Cooksey that he had stayed with his girlfriend at the apartment where the killing happened.
“Yeah I remember that. I should, I should probably talk to my lawyer, right?”
A spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said Real’s case is a separate submittal and is still being reviewed. A spokesman for the
Avondale Police Department said officials would respond to queries this morning.
Every other victim police named in January was accounted for in the indictment, though one was listed as a confidential victim. The indictment charges Cooksey with the first-degree murder of that victim on either Dec. 15 or Dec.16, as well as kidnapping, sexual assault and armed robbery.
The charges match the description of the crimes police said Cooksey committed against Maria Villanueva, a 43year-old mother who was found in a south Phoenix alley on Dec. 16.
Villanueva was initially the subject of a Glendale Police Department missing person’s case.
She was last seen driving into her apartment complex near the 5100 block of North 58th Avenue, according to police. Officials say Cooksey was there, too, and greeted her at her car. Villanueva was last seen getting into a vehicle with Cooksey, who drove off.
On Dec. 16, residents living near Mohave and Third streets in Phoenix discovered the partially nude body of a woman curled up near a cement wall.
Cooksey previously pleaded not guilty in the deaths of his mother, Rene Cooksey, and stepfather, Edward Nunn.
The shooting victims included people of varied demographics. They were younger and older adults; men and women; black, white and Hispanic in race and ethnicity.
Here are the victims police say they have tied to Cooksey to date, including the Real killing. All occurred in 2017:
Nov. 27: Andrew “Andy” Remillard, 27, 16th Street and Indian School Road, Phoenix.
Nov. 27: Parker Smith, 21, 16th Street and Indian School Road, Phoenix. Remillard and Smith were gunned down in a parking lot in the late-night hours of Nov. 27. Police have not yet determined a motive for the shooting and are unaware of how Cooksey may have come into contact with the two friends.
Dec. 2: Salim Richards, 35, 4000 block of 44th Avenue, Phoenix. Officers found Richards critically wounded when they arrived at about 7:45 p.m. He later died at the scene.
Dec. 11: Jesus Bonifacio Real, 25, 500 block of East Harrison Drive, Avondale. Real is the brother of Cooksey’s exgirlfriend, police said.
Dec. 13: LaTorrie Beckford, 29, 5000 block of North 55th Avenue, Glendale. Police say Beckford was shot twice and found near a parking lot between two buildings near Camelback Road and 55th Avenue. He died at the scene.
Dec. 15: Kristopher Cameron, 21, 6000 block of North 58th Avenue, Glendale. Cameron was found kneeling in a grassy field in the area of the 5000 block of North 58th Avenue in Glendale. He died a day later. The shooting occurred in an area about a mile from where Beckford was shot to death 48 hours earlier.
Dec. 16: Maria Villanueva, 43, body discovered at the 1700 block of South Third Avenue, Phoenix. Police said Villanueva was abducted from her Glendale apartment a day earlier, sexually assaulted and murdered. Police say Villanueva met with Cooksey as she was pulling into her complex and got into the car with him. Officials have found no indication the two knew each other.
Dec. 17: Rene Cooksey, 56, Cleophus Cooksey’s mother, in the 1300 block of East Highland Avenue, Phoenix.
Dec. 17: Edward Nunn, 54, 1300 block of East Highland Avenue, Phoenix. Rene Cooksey and Nunn, Cleophus Cooksey’s mother and stepfather, were gunned down in their home. Police responded to a shots-fired call and discovered the younger Cooksey at the home. He was arrested at the scene.
Cooksey was released from prison in July after serving time for a manslaughter conviction for participating in a strip-club robbery in which an accomplice was killed.
Cooksey’s attorney, Gary Beren, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment late Monday.
“Yeah. There was a, something happened. ... I should, I should probably talk to my lawyer, right?” Cleophus Cooksey Jr. In court records of police interview