The key to cracking a series of fatal shootings in the Phoenix area in 2017 came when police were called to a blood-spattered apartment where they arrested a man who was suspected of killing his mother and stepfather.
Authorities say evidence found there linked Cleophus Cooksey Jr. to four other killings. Police found a gun used in several of them, a necklace belonging to a victim and the vehicle keys of a woman whose partially nude body was found in an alley.
Cooksey’s trial opens Monday, more than seven years later, after repeated delays due to pandemic. The 43-year-old is accused of murder and other charges stemming from a total of eight killings in Phoenix and nearby Glendale over a three-week span…