PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona jury on Thursday sentenced a man to death in a string of killings in metro Phoenix during a three-week span in 2017, marking the end of a seven-month trial over attacks that targeted random victims and the defendant’s own mother and stepfather.
Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, was found guilty in late September of murder in eight killings. He also was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted sexual assault charges stemming from the attacks in Phoenix and nearby Glendale.
Jurors sentenced Cooksey to death in six of the eight killings for which he was convicted of murder. The jury was undecided on the punishment for his convictions in the killings of his mother and stepfather…