Dec. 21, 2025
One Of Arizona’s Most Prolific Serial Killers Sentenced To Death: “He’s A Monster”
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RSS Feed This week, Phoenix residents finally saw justice for a 3 week long killing spree that ended in the murders of convicted killer Cleophus Cooksey Jr’s mom and stepfather. Cooksey was convicted of killing 8 people in total, but the jury was hung on giving a death sentence for the murders of his mom and stepdad, and now the DA is considering retrying Cooksey because of it! Hear what the DA and a family friend had to say about the evil they saw in Cooksey and why they say he is the reason why we need the death penalty in this country.
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00:00:10
Speaker 1: The folks.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: It is Sunday, December twenty first, and the State of Arizona it just imposed the death penalty on a man who was convicted in eight killings. Yes, he got the death penalty, So why is that still not enough in this case? And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and DJ Roabes. I'm saying that right for the State of Arizona, and we'll explain here. Yes, this man got the death penalty for he was on trial for eight killings, got the death penalty for six. It's a little confusing, but the State of Arizona is saying this might be serious enough we go back and fight for.
00:00:46
Speaker 1: The other two.
00:00:47
Speaker 3: And police say they think he killed a total of nine people, So there are all sorts of numbers around. But yes, if he's already gotten the death penalty for six murders, why go back and try to get the death penalty for the last two? And that is going to be time consuming, and there's already been a ton of time, a ton of money, and a ton of work put into this case.
00:01:06
Speaker 4: This killing spree happened in twenty seventeen.
00:01:10
Speaker 2: But they're still considering folks, And when you hear about this crime. You hear about how he terrorized this community, you might understand a little bit why the prosecution thinks it is worth it to go back and make sure that these other two killings also get the same punishment as the others.
00:01:27
Speaker 3: That does make sense, especially when you consider this Phoenix area. I did not realize, especially around that time period, there were a series of serial killers or serial shootings. This has been an area that has been plagued with killing sprees.
00:01:43
Speaker 4: I did not realize.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: It's a weird thing to say, but that is true.
00:01:47
Speaker 2: And look, we have sometimes there are serial killers that go over years time. This was a condensed, short burst of death in that area that scared the hell out of everybody because it didn't seem to be much of a rhyme or reason to what was going on.
00:02:02
Speaker 3: Yes, nine people killed in twenty one days, all shot right, all shot, very very scary stuff, and it was so it was so confusing to police. They didn't even piece it together that it could have all happened from one person because they were so random. Some of the killings there were personal connections to Cleophus Cooksy Junior, but in some of the killings there was zero rhyme or reason to why he would go after or kill these folks. So it was incredibly confusing to belize to put it all together.
00:02:34
Speaker 4: And it was the evidence that linked these crimes.
00:02:37
Speaker 3: But if it weren't for that his maybe missteps or mistakes and keeping evidence and keeping tokens, they would never have figured out that one man was responsible for all these crimes.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: And you heard that the one man kind of a unique name, Cleophus Cooksie. Is the name Cleophus Cooksie junior, forty three years old for the young guy certainly at this point, but these crimes were back in twenty seventeen. He was found guilty. They came back, and he will be getting the death penalty now. He was found guilty of eight counts of murder, found guilty of kidnapping, arm robbery, attempted sexual assault in these cases again eight counts of murder. And I guess robes he, I guess it certainly stands out among the dead his mom and his stepdad he killed, and she shot and killed his mother and his stepdad.
00:03:21
Speaker 3: And ohe the irony because perhaps that is the most degree, just not that any death is any more or less important than the other but certainly to be able to kill your own mother and stepfather who raised you, by the way, that is disturbing. And those are the two deaths that the jury was hung over whether or not to pursue the death penalty with him.
00:03:41
Speaker 2: Did you get much of an explanation or reasoning for that? I mean, what did they struggle with on that one? Was it emotional struggling or was there something about those particular deaths that was different.
00:03:50
Speaker 3: I read nothing about how or why because this just happened, and perhaps the jurors haven't spoken out yet. There was no real motive in this case that anyone's been able to figure out. And also a note, Cleophus Cooksey Junior had just gotten out of prison months before after serving sixteen years for a manslaughter conviction. So he just gets released from prison and months later goes on this killing spree. This man clearly had violence in his heart. One of his mother's and stepfather's best friends came to Core for the sentencing this week. He said he went there to try and see because he said he watched Cliophus be raised from a child. He said, I've known him since he was little. I wanted to see if there was any remorse, if there was any goodness in his heart. And he came out of the courtroom this week and said he's a monster and he doesn't have any heart, and he said he wants him to die for what he's done.
00:04:40
Speaker 2: I'm always curious what goes wrong, something happened. You hear about these crimes that we're going to go through here quickly, but are you here about it? And something has to be off or wrong or like a legit illness, mental illness. It's tough to understand when you see stuff like this. To think that just somebody happened to be a bad dude and decide to co consciously decide to be this type of evil is confusing.
00:05:03
Speaker 3: And evil is the word that people use when they describe this man, because look, it's there are some murders that maybe you could justify or get your head around or understand from an emotional connection, But when you just have someone have apparently that much race that they will kill innocent people who are just in their car or walking to the bus or going about their business, thinking that nothing could possibly go wrong because you've done nothing to no one, and yet somehow there's so much reason that you will kill an innocent person who you have zero connection to.
00:05:35
Speaker 4: That's hard to try to understand, you know.
00:05:38
Speaker 2: And to what you're saying that we now he's responsible for nine deaths, he's been convicted of eight accounts of murder. We have no idea police, haven't you just mentioned motive? There's not one. Why did he do this? M No explanation has ever been offered by authorities for he did it because he was upset at this person, that person, or this triggered him, or that's nothing.
00:06:03
Speaker 1: That is terrifying to think about.
00:06:05
Speaker 2: People are out there and just the randomness of violence in life sometimes.
00:06:09
Speaker 3: And I think that is why these types of stories, serial cares, serial shootings not only are frightening as hell, but fascinating because it's not normal. It's not how most people operate, and we can't go around our business in our lives worried that random strangers are suddenly going to turn on us. But that is what makes it so frightening, because we have seen cases where that exact thing happens.
00:06:31
Speaker 2: You know, I'm going to wait here, I was going to mention we will in just a moment here are going to mention what the da says he kind of made a statement about the death penalty in this case that I'll hold that and we'll discuss that after we get through the break here. But we go back to twenty seventeen Robes in November is when it started, and it started randomly, and do I have right? All of the victims except his mom and his stepdad were pretty young folks. But yes, these two young men. Again, no motive on this one.
00:06:57
Speaker 3: Was it two friends sitting in a car, they were parked at a cash checking or a yes, a check cashing I said that wrong, a check cashing store, and they just found both men dead, shot in the head for whatever reason.
00:07:12
Speaker 2: After that, Seline Richards, thirty one years old, shot while walking to his girlfriend's apartment. Again, this was five days after the first killings. And again there are no rhyme or reason to this one either.
00:07:22
Speaker 3: Not that I'm aware of, just completely and totally random.
00:07:27
Speaker 4: It's so scary.
00:07:28
Speaker 2: And then the next two after that, we're both at apartment complexes in the Glendale, Arizona area. Won a twenty nine year old one a twenty one year old Littory Beckford and Christopher Cameron again both just shot at apartment complexes, no rhyme or reason, no right.
00:07:43
Speaker 3: And then this next one is really really sad and scary. Maria Vellanueva. She was forty three years old, but they actually have surveillance video of her and he took her car, so he grabbed her as she was walking to her car, made her sit in the front passage, so they can actually see that on surveillance video. And then her body was found the next day, half naked in Phoenix. She was sexually assaulted and his DNA was found on her body.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: And again, folks, as we're going through this at the time, right in Arizona, they weren't putting out pictures and saying we're looking for this suspect or saying they're going after This was just a string in a three week period of people just getting brutally murdered.
00:08:28
Speaker 3: Yes, because the one we didn't mention that he was not charged with. But right in the middle of all of these killings, there was another met found dead in his apartment, Jesus Reale. He was found on his chase lounge, shot in similar fashion to some of these other folks, but he actually did have a personal connection to Cleophys. He produced music with him because Cooksie was I guess. I don't know how much of a musical artist he was, but that was what he did or what he tried to do, I guess. So Interestingly, the one where they actually have a personal connection to the death in the middle of this killing spree. They never charged him with that crime, but that one maybe there was some personal beef. Interesting they chose not to pursue that.
00:09:08
Speaker 2: Again, they had eight others lined up already. But this is it's you put yourself in that position of understanding just how terrorized this community was around that time. And then the last killings Renee Cooksy, Edward Nunn, Renee Cooksie fifty six years old, Edward None fifty four years old, Renee Cooksy, his mother, his mother, and I saw and I heard the details and the circumstances around it that there was a shot fired call to his mom's house and police actually came and confronted him. He tried to play it cool, and he ends up getting taken into custody. But rhyme or reason, Yeah, why he kills his mom and he stepped in, Yes, And.
00:09:46
Speaker 3: If it hadn't been for neighbors calling police reporting, Hey, we hear gunshots. Police quickly getting to that apartment complex. They said that they found blood spatter on his doorstep and he was saying.
00:09:59
Speaker 4: Oh, no, I just cut myself on my hand. It's nothing at all.
00:10:01
Speaker 3: When they got and pushed in, they say that he actually, in that moment, threatened to slit the officer's throat, so they knew they had their guy at that point.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: So, and did you figure out why this took so long to get him to trial? It was just a complicated case. But this is twenty seventeen and this trial's just happened eight years later.
00:10:19
Speaker 3: That is jaw dropping to me. And I can only imagine it was just putting and piecing it together. But that seems like that is not your right to a speedy trial. Eight years after you've committed the crime, you're waiting for your trial, and then that trial is months long. So his trial began in May of twenty twenty five. I was wondering why this didn't come on our radar, and I started remembering Ditty, and I thought, you know what, I think we were so focused on Sean Combe's trial at that point.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: Which happened in May exactly the same time.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: This is something that we would have absolutely it would have peaked our interest and we would have been following it. But I think because we were so focused on the ditty trial, we didn't even hear about this trial. But yes, this took Can you imagine being a juror sitting through all that testimony old months, for all these months, and just now this week he finally was sentenced, and now they're talking about potentially retrying him for the deaths of his mother and stepfather so they can get that death penalty verdict. But it's unclear why they would need to and why they would want to after spending so much time and money on this trial. It doesn't seem it doesn't seem possible.
00:11:22
Speaker 2: This is a tough one to understand out there in Arizona. But Arizona, as much as we've been talking about robes this year, how many executions on a pretty historic pace as a country, Arizona, however, is not a state that executes a lot of people, even though they got quite a few on death row.
00:11:42
Speaker 1: We'll explain when we come back.
00:11:44
Speaker 2: Also will tell you what the district attorney is staying out there about the death penalty. Also, have we seen yet the last execution of twenty twenty five. Well, it's the last one scheduled, it's already happened. But one state has until Christmas Eve to kill a guy.
00:12:05
Speaker 1: We'll explain. To stay here, all right, we continue here on Amy and TJ. Robes. You're gonna have to help me out.
00:12:19
Speaker 2: I teased so many things, make sure I get to them to them all. Let's start with what the DA out there in Arizona is saying about this Cooksy case. Look, there are people you can debate the death penalty all day long, and then there are some cases where folks will look and go, Okay, the death penalty is the right call here, and the DA is essentially saying.
00:12:37
Speaker 3: That, Yes, the DA came out and said death is the only just punishment in this case when you look at the facts and you look at the details, he said, anyone who questions why we need the death penalty needs to look no further than this case. And look, I think if you look and see that he was already in prison for manslaughter and he was released and pretty much, yes, within months of his release, he goes out and.
00:13:00
Speaker 4: Kills nine people.
00:13:02
Speaker 3: So when you have certain violent criminals and I don't know if there's a way you can predict whether or not somebody is going to go immediately back or eventually back to a life of violence and crime. But at this case, obviously, in hindsight you can say, yeah, he was that guy. This guy never needs to be released, and unfortunately, with overcrowding prisons and the way our system works, murderers get released. And so I guess his point is when you put someone on death row, you eliminate that fear for the most part.
00:13:32
Speaker 2: I mean this, But the way he spoke of and that's always you and I have talked about this plane, he speaks of it as vengeance versus a deterrence, And I don't know what the argument is for people still make the deterrence argument. But then you and I sit here and say, well, as much as you got a problem with DeSanto's out there, folks, his argument is essentially the problem with the death pony is that we don't follow through. We leave people on death row for twenty thirty forty years. Why is that a deterrent to crime? If okay, yeah, if I get caught, I'll live out another forty years and get a nice last meal before they try to kill me.
00:14:09
Speaker 3: I mean what, No, Yeah, it's not a deterrent, Yes, I think, Yes, you're right.
00:14:13
Speaker 1: It was more vengeance the DA's statement.
00:14:15
Speaker 2: When we talk about it as as vengeful instead of some kind of deterrence, she is essentially saying he's a bad guy. He deserves to die. That's a tough argument for a government to make, at least when it sits with me.
00:14:27
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:14:27
Speaker 3: Her exact words were, it takes a special kind of evil to prey upon the vulnerable and needlessly take the lives of eight innocent people. Death is the only just punishment, and we will do everything in our power to see it carried through.
00:14:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, and plain folks plenty religious folks will say, yeah, how can you make an argument that this guy deserves to be cared for for the next forty to fifty years of his life on the tax bearer dime?
00:14:54
Speaker 1: Yeah?
00:14:54
Speaker 3: I know, but as we've seen with some of the death penalty cases, that's still what happens to people on death.
00:14:59
Speaker 1: Row right now.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: They get taken care of for forty years and then get a really special last meal. I mean, that is true, but I thought it was interesting when we were talking about motive in this case, prosecutors never came up with one, but their big play to the jury and part of their reasoning behind the death penalty, was that he targeted his victims when they were vulnerable.
00:15:18
Speaker 4: So I thought that was interesting that that mattered.
00:15:21
Speaker 3: That he chose the moments when they were in their apartment, when their guards were down, when they felt that they were safe and secure, and he took that away from these people and perhaps the community who was very fearful during this time.
00:15:33
Speaker 2: We've heard there's plenty special circumstances. Yes, it's not just a murder, it's an especially heinous murder because of some details. Now is he going to end up, When are they going to carry this, How are they going to carry this out? The death penalty? Don't know because you got one hundred and eight. I think it is inmates sitting on death row in Arizona and they don't kill them a lot. No, they did two this year. The previous two years were zero, three the year before that, and then there was like an eight ear stretched where there was zero death row inmates executed in Arizona. So again there are questions about methods, and they don't get the proper drugs and those things. But quite frankly, Arizona is not on a tear to get through death row.
00:16:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're not on a tear for death row.
00:16:15
Speaker 3: And we just talked about the eight year lag in the trial of this man.
00:16:19
Speaker 4: Let me just say this, this is so interesting. The year before, in twenty sixteen, this bus.
00:16:24
Speaker 3: Driver who killed and was charged of killing nine people, so very similar in a period of a year. His trial date hasn't his trial hasn't even happened yet, is set for a year from now December of twenty twenty six. That means it will be ten years after he committed these or is accused of committing these murders that he will finally get his day in court. So Arizona doesn't have a great track record at getting significant murder cases, serial murder cases to trial, let alone to conviction and to a actual sentence.
00:16:57
Speaker 2: In this is okay, this is just got a little pissed because when you say that we've talked so much about how long people end up on death row, are you really talking to me at the possibility that guy.
00:17:08
Speaker 4: In particular, what year with his crime twenty sixteen.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: Twenty sixteen, So if it takes you ten years to get to trial, and then you're possibly on death row for another thirty to forty Are you really telling me you're gonna make these families who lost a loved one in twenty sixteen wait and wait for fifty years for justice to be served.
00:17:27
Speaker 1: We've got to fix that one.
00:17:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, how about just waiting ten years to get your day?
00:17:30
Speaker 1: In course, we gotta fix that one.
00:17:32
Speaker 3: That's not fair to the accused, and it's not fair to the victim's family.
00:17:36
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of times the accused, well, like another motion, another motion, follow another motion.
00:17:41
Speaker 1: They're trying to delay. Might as well push his clock down the road.
00:17:45
Speaker 3: I know what the end is probably going to be, So let's just go ahead and delay, delay, delay.
00:17:49
Speaker 2: Well, and again, we've been talking here plenty if you've been following this podcast. Extraordinary year in executions forty help me forty seven second forty seven. That's the most in THEE that we've seen since two thousand and nine. We think the number is going to stay at forty seven for the year, even though as we're recording it's December twenty first. But there's another death warrant right now Robes that is active in the state of Georgia. We just don't know if they're going to see it through.
00:18:19
Speaker 4: It would have to happen.
00:18:20
Speaker 3: The execution would have to happen on Monday, on Tuesday, or on Wednesday, that would be Christmas Eve for those who don't know, by noon, so that that's when his death warrant officially terminates and they'll have to then reset an execution date. And there's all sorts of things that have to happen for that to occur. So it looks like he will be spared at least through twenty twenty five.
00:18:42
Speaker 1: And this was Stacy Humphrey Humpy. This was the one. This is the obese guy.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: Yes he it was the obiste guy who had this extraordinary.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: Last me Lover's pizza, a double cheeseburger, that was it.
00:18:55
Speaker 3: Two lemon lime sodas your ribs.
00:18:59
Speaker 1: It was.
00:19:00
Speaker 4: It was a platter for a party of.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: Twenty uh yeah yeah, so yeah, he ordered a last meal and then his execution got halted. We don't know if that we'll come back again that no one got halted because of some issues with conflict of interest on the parole board. We won't get into all that, but it is active. They could set they could kill that man any time between now and Christmas Eve on it do you think.
00:19:25
Speaker 3: I think that that's a very tall order and seems unlikely, you know what, But.
00:19:30
Speaker 2: You never know, not from a sentimental standpoint, but from everybody who just they want to be home for the holidays.
00:19:35
Speaker 1: I don't want to mess around with us.
00:19:37
Speaker 3: I think that that has a huge role in everyone's motivation.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: All right, well, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time with us. It's been I kind of believe how many death penalty and execution stories we've done this year. But it has been an extraordinary year for this country, and it's wrapping up in an extraordinary way, to the point that we're waiting to see what happens up to Christmas Eve on an execution, folks. That's always we appreciate you spending some time with that's for my dear Amy Robot.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: I am T. J. Holmes that we will talk to also
00:20:16
Speaker 2: M HM.
Speaker 1: The folks.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: It is Sunday, December twenty first, and the State of Arizona it just imposed the death penalty on a man who was convicted in eight killings. Yes, he got the death penalty, So why is that still not enough in this case? And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and DJ Roabes. I'm saying that right for the State of Arizona, and we'll explain here. Yes, this man got the death penalty for he was on trial for eight killings, got the death penalty for six. It's a little confusing, but the State of Arizona is saying this might be serious enough we go back and fight for.
00:00:46
Speaker 1: The other two.
00:00:47
Speaker 3: And police say they think he killed a total of nine people, So there are all sorts of numbers around. But yes, if he's already gotten the death penalty for six murders, why go back and try to get the death penalty for the last two? And that is going to be time consuming, and there's already been a ton of time, a ton of money, and a ton of work put into this case.
00:01:06
Speaker 4: This killing spree happened in twenty seventeen.
00:01:10
Speaker 2: But they're still considering folks, And when you hear about this crime. You hear about how he terrorized this community, you might understand a little bit why the prosecution thinks it is worth it to go back and make sure that these other two killings also get the same punishment as the others.
00:01:27
Speaker 3: That does make sense, especially when you consider this Phoenix area. I did not realize, especially around that time period, there were a series of serial killers or serial shootings. This has been an area that has been plagued with killing sprees.
00:01:43
Speaker 4: I did not realize.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: It's a weird thing to say, but that is true.
00:01:47
Speaker 2: And look, we have sometimes there are serial killers that go over years time. This was a condensed, short burst of death in that area that scared the hell out of everybody because it didn't seem to be much of a rhyme or reason to what was going on.
00:02:02
Speaker 3: Yes, nine people killed in twenty one days, all shot right, all shot, very very scary stuff, and it was so it was so confusing to police. They didn't even piece it together that it could have all happened from one person because they were so random. Some of the killings there were personal connections to Cleophus Cooksy Junior, but in some of the killings there was zero rhyme or reason to why he would go after or kill these folks. So it was incredibly confusing to belize to put it all together.
00:02:34
Speaker 4: And it was the evidence that linked these crimes.
00:02:37
Speaker 3: But if it weren't for that his maybe missteps or mistakes and keeping evidence and keeping tokens, they would never have figured out that one man was responsible for all these crimes.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: And you heard that the one man kind of a unique name, Cleophus Cooksie. Is the name Cleophus Cooksie junior, forty three years old for the young guy certainly at this point, but these crimes were back in twenty seventeen. He was found guilty. They came back, and he will be getting the death penalty now. He was found guilty of eight counts of murder, found guilty of kidnapping, arm robbery, attempted sexual assault in these cases again eight counts of murder. And I guess robes he, I guess it certainly stands out among the dead his mom and his stepdad he killed, and she shot and killed his mother and his stepdad.
00:03:21
Speaker 3: And ohe the irony because perhaps that is the most degree, just not that any death is any more or less important than the other but certainly to be able to kill your own mother and stepfather who raised you, by the way, that is disturbing. And those are the two deaths that the jury was hung over whether or not to pursue the death penalty with him.
00:03:41
Speaker 2: Did you get much of an explanation or reasoning for that? I mean, what did they struggle with on that one? Was it emotional struggling or was there something about those particular deaths that was different.
00:03:50
Speaker 3: I read nothing about how or why because this just happened, and perhaps the jurors haven't spoken out yet. There was no real motive in this case that anyone's been able to figure out. And also a note, Cleophus Cooksey Junior had just gotten out of prison months before after serving sixteen years for a manslaughter conviction. So he just gets released from prison and months later goes on this killing spree. This man clearly had violence in his heart. One of his mother's and stepfather's best friends came to Core for the sentencing this week. He said he went there to try and see because he said he watched Cliophus be raised from a child. He said, I've known him since he was little. I wanted to see if there was any remorse, if there was any goodness in his heart. And he came out of the courtroom this week and said he's a monster and he doesn't have any heart, and he said he wants him to die for what he's done.
00:04:40
Speaker 2: I'm always curious what goes wrong, something happened. You hear about these crimes that we're going to go through here quickly, but are you here about it? And something has to be off or wrong or like a legit illness, mental illness. It's tough to understand when you see stuff like this. To think that just somebody happened to be a bad dude and decide to co consciously decide to be this type of evil is confusing.
00:05:03
Speaker 3: And evil is the word that people use when they describe this man, because look, it's there are some murders that maybe you could justify or get your head around or understand from an emotional connection, But when you just have someone have apparently that much race that they will kill innocent people who are just in their car or walking to the bus or going about their business, thinking that nothing could possibly go wrong because you've done nothing to no one, and yet somehow there's so much reason that you will kill an innocent person who you have zero connection to.
00:05:35
Speaker 4: That's hard to try to understand, you know.
00:05:38
Speaker 2: And to what you're saying that we now he's responsible for nine deaths, he's been convicted of eight accounts of murder. We have no idea police, haven't you just mentioned motive? There's not one. Why did he do this? M No explanation has ever been offered by authorities for he did it because he was upset at this person, that person, or this triggered him, or that's nothing.
00:06:03
Speaker 1: That is terrifying to think about.
00:06:05
Speaker 2: People are out there and just the randomness of violence in life sometimes.
00:06:09
Speaker 3: And I think that is why these types of stories, serial cares, serial shootings not only are frightening as hell, but fascinating because it's not normal. It's not how most people operate, and we can't go around our business in our lives worried that random strangers are suddenly going to turn on us. But that is what makes it so frightening, because we have seen cases where that exact thing happens.
00:06:31
Speaker 2: You know, I'm going to wait here, I was going to mention we will in just a moment here are going to mention what the da says he kind of made a statement about the death penalty in this case that I'll hold that and we'll discuss that after we get through the break here. But we go back to twenty seventeen Robes in November is when it started, and it started randomly, and do I have right? All of the victims except his mom and his stepdad were pretty young folks. But yes, these two young men. Again, no motive on this one.
00:06:57
Speaker 3: Was it two friends sitting in a car, they were parked at a cash checking or a yes, a check cashing I said that wrong, a check cashing store, and they just found both men dead, shot in the head for whatever reason.
00:07:12
Speaker 2: After that, Seline Richards, thirty one years old, shot while walking to his girlfriend's apartment. Again, this was five days after the first killings. And again there are no rhyme or reason to this one either.
00:07:22
Speaker 3: Not that I'm aware of, just completely and totally random.
00:07:27
Speaker 4: It's so scary.
00:07:28
Speaker 2: And then the next two after that, we're both at apartment complexes in the Glendale, Arizona area. Won a twenty nine year old one a twenty one year old Littory Beckford and Christopher Cameron again both just shot at apartment complexes, no rhyme or reason, no right.
00:07:43
Speaker 3: And then this next one is really really sad and scary. Maria Vellanueva. She was forty three years old, but they actually have surveillance video of her and he took her car, so he grabbed her as she was walking to her car, made her sit in the front passage, so they can actually see that on surveillance video. And then her body was found the next day, half naked in Phoenix. She was sexually assaulted and his DNA was found on her body.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: And again, folks, as we're going through this at the time, right in Arizona, they weren't putting out pictures and saying we're looking for this suspect or saying they're going after This was just a string in a three week period of people just getting brutally murdered.
00:08:28
Speaker 3: Yes, because the one we didn't mention that he was not charged with. But right in the middle of all of these killings, there was another met found dead in his apartment, Jesus Reale. He was found on his chase lounge, shot in similar fashion to some of these other folks, but he actually did have a personal connection to Cleophys. He produced music with him because Cooksie was I guess. I don't know how much of a musical artist he was, but that was what he did or what he tried to do, I guess. So Interestingly, the one where they actually have a personal connection to the death in the middle of this killing spree. They never charged him with that crime, but that one maybe there was some personal beef. Interesting they chose not to pursue that.
00:09:08
Speaker 2: Again, they had eight others lined up already. But this is it's you put yourself in that position of understanding just how terrorized this community was around that time. And then the last killings Renee Cooksy, Edward Nunn, Renee Cooksie fifty six years old, Edward None fifty four years old, Renee Cooksy, his mother, his mother, and I saw and I heard the details and the circumstances around it that there was a shot fired call to his mom's house and police actually came and confronted him. He tried to play it cool, and he ends up getting taken into custody. But rhyme or reason, Yeah, why he kills his mom and he stepped in, Yes, And.
00:09:46
Speaker 3: If it hadn't been for neighbors calling police reporting, Hey, we hear gunshots. Police quickly getting to that apartment complex. They said that they found blood spatter on his doorstep and he was saying.
00:09:59
Speaker 4: Oh, no, I just cut myself on my hand. It's nothing at all.
00:10:01
Speaker 3: When they got and pushed in, they say that he actually, in that moment, threatened to slit the officer's throat, so they knew they had their guy at that point.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: So, and did you figure out why this took so long to get him to trial? It was just a complicated case. But this is twenty seventeen and this trial's just happened eight years later.
00:10:19
Speaker 3: That is jaw dropping to me. And I can only imagine it was just putting and piecing it together. But that seems like that is not your right to a speedy trial. Eight years after you've committed the crime, you're waiting for your trial, and then that trial is months long. So his trial began in May of twenty twenty five. I was wondering why this didn't come on our radar, and I started remembering Ditty, and I thought, you know what, I think we were so focused on Sean Combe's trial at that point.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: Which happened in May exactly the same time.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: This is something that we would have absolutely it would have peaked our interest and we would have been following it. But I think because we were so focused on the ditty trial, we didn't even hear about this trial. But yes, this took Can you imagine being a juror sitting through all that testimony old months, for all these months, and just now this week he finally was sentenced, and now they're talking about potentially retrying him for the deaths of his mother and stepfather so they can get that death penalty verdict. But it's unclear why they would need to and why they would want to after spending so much time and money on this trial. It doesn't seem it doesn't seem possible.
00:11:22
Speaker 2: This is a tough one to understand out there in Arizona. But Arizona, as much as we've been talking about robes this year, how many executions on a pretty historic pace as a country, Arizona, however, is not a state that executes a lot of people, even though they got quite a few on death row.
00:11:42
Speaker 1: We'll explain when we come back.
00:11:44
Speaker 2: Also will tell you what the district attorney is staying out there about the death penalty. Also, have we seen yet the last execution of twenty twenty five. Well, it's the last one scheduled, it's already happened. But one state has until Christmas Eve to kill a guy.
00:12:05
Speaker 1: We'll explain. To stay here, all right, we continue here on Amy and TJ. Robes. You're gonna have to help me out.
00:12:19
Speaker 2: I teased so many things, make sure I get to them to them all. Let's start with what the DA out there in Arizona is saying about this Cooksy case. Look, there are people you can debate the death penalty all day long, and then there are some cases where folks will look and go, Okay, the death penalty is the right call here, and the DA is essentially saying.
00:12:37
Speaker 3: That, Yes, the DA came out and said death is the only just punishment in this case when you look at the facts and you look at the details, he said, anyone who questions why we need the death penalty needs to look no further than this case. And look, I think if you look and see that he was already in prison for manslaughter and he was released and pretty much, yes, within months of his release, he goes out and.
00:13:00
Speaker 4: Kills nine people.
00:13:02
Speaker 3: So when you have certain violent criminals and I don't know if there's a way you can predict whether or not somebody is going to go immediately back or eventually back to a life of violence and crime. But at this case, obviously, in hindsight you can say, yeah, he was that guy. This guy never needs to be released, and unfortunately, with overcrowding prisons and the way our system works, murderers get released. And so I guess his point is when you put someone on death row, you eliminate that fear for the most part.
00:13:32
Speaker 2: I mean this, But the way he spoke of and that's always you and I have talked about this plane, he speaks of it as vengeance versus a deterrence, And I don't know what the argument is for people still make the deterrence argument. But then you and I sit here and say, well, as much as you got a problem with DeSanto's out there, folks, his argument is essentially the problem with the death pony is that we don't follow through. We leave people on death row for twenty thirty forty years. Why is that a deterrent to crime? If okay, yeah, if I get caught, I'll live out another forty years and get a nice last meal before they try to kill me.
00:14:09
Speaker 3: I mean what, No, Yeah, it's not a deterrent, Yes, I think, Yes, you're right.
00:14:13
Speaker 1: It was more vengeance the DA's statement.
00:14:15
Speaker 2: When we talk about it as as vengeful instead of some kind of deterrence, she is essentially saying he's a bad guy. He deserves to die. That's a tough argument for a government to make, at least when it sits with me.
00:14:27
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:14:27
Speaker 3: Her exact words were, it takes a special kind of evil to prey upon the vulnerable and needlessly take the lives of eight innocent people. Death is the only just punishment, and we will do everything in our power to see it carried through.
00:14:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, and plain folks plenty religious folks will say, yeah, how can you make an argument that this guy deserves to be cared for for the next forty to fifty years of his life on the tax bearer dime?
00:14:54
Speaker 1: Yeah?
00:14:54
Speaker 3: I know, but as we've seen with some of the death penalty cases, that's still what happens to people on death.
00:14:59
Speaker 1: Row right now.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: They get taken care of for forty years and then get a really special last meal. I mean, that is true, but I thought it was interesting when we were talking about motive in this case, prosecutors never came up with one, but their big play to the jury and part of their reasoning behind the death penalty, was that he targeted his victims when they were vulnerable.
00:15:18
Speaker 4: So I thought that was interesting that that mattered.
00:15:21
Speaker 3: That he chose the moments when they were in their apartment, when their guards were down, when they felt that they were safe and secure, and he took that away from these people and perhaps the community who was very fearful during this time.
00:15:33
Speaker 2: We've heard there's plenty special circumstances. Yes, it's not just a murder, it's an especially heinous murder because of some details. Now is he going to end up, When are they going to carry this, How are they going to carry this out? The death penalty? Don't know because you got one hundred and eight. I think it is inmates sitting on death row in Arizona and they don't kill them a lot. No, they did two this year. The previous two years were zero, three the year before that, and then there was like an eight ear stretched where there was zero death row inmates executed in Arizona. So again there are questions about methods, and they don't get the proper drugs and those things. But quite frankly, Arizona is not on a tear to get through death row.
00:16:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're not on a tear for death row.
00:16:15
Speaker 3: And we just talked about the eight year lag in the trial of this man.
00:16:19
Speaker 4: Let me just say this, this is so interesting. The year before, in twenty sixteen, this bus.
00:16:24
Speaker 3: Driver who killed and was charged of killing nine people, so very similar in a period of a year. His trial date hasn't his trial hasn't even happened yet, is set for a year from now December of twenty twenty six. That means it will be ten years after he committed these or is accused of committing these murders that he will finally get his day in court. So Arizona doesn't have a great track record at getting significant murder cases, serial murder cases to trial, let alone to conviction and to a actual sentence.
00:16:57
Speaker 2: In this is okay, this is just got a little pissed because when you say that we've talked so much about how long people end up on death row, are you really talking to me at the possibility that guy.
00:17:08
Speaker 4: In particular, what year with his crime twenty sixteen.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: Twenty sixteen, So if it takes you ten years to get to trial, and then you're possibly on death row for another thirty to forty Are you really telling me you're gonna make these families who lost a loved one in twenty sixteen wait and wait for fifty years for justice to be served.
00:17:27
Speaker 1: We've got to fix that one.
00:17:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, how about just waiting ten years to get your day?
00:17:30
Speaker 1: In course, we gotta fix that one.
00:17:32
Speaker 3: That's not fair to the accused, and it's not fair to the victim's family.
00:17:36
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of times the accused, well, like another motion, another motion, follow another motion.
00:17:41
Speaker 1: They're trying to delay. Might as well push his clock down the road.
00:17:45
Speaker 3: I know what the end is probably going to be, So let's just go ahead and delay, delay, delay.
00:17:49
Speaker 2: Well, and again, we've been talking here plenty if you've been following this podcast. Extraordinary year in executions forty help me forty seven second forty seven. That's the most in THEE that we've seen since two thousand and nine. We think the number is going to stay at forty seven for the year, even though as we're recording it's December twenty first. But there's another death warrant right now Robes that is active in the state of Georgia. We just don't know if they're going to see it through.
00:18:19
Speaker 4: It would have to happen.
00:18:20
Speaker 3: The execution would have to happen on Monday, on Tuesday, or on Wednesday, that would be Christmas Eve for those who don't know, by noon, so that that's when his death warrant officially terminates and they'll have to then reset an execution date. And there's all sorts of things that have to happen for that to occur. So it looks like he will be spared at least through twenty twenty five.
00:18:42
Speaker 1: And this was Stacy Humphrey Humpy. This was the one. This is the obese guy.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: Yes he it was the obiste guy who had this extraordinary.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: Last me Lover's pizza, a double cheeseburger, that was it.
00:18:55
Speaker 3: Two lemon lime sodas your ribs.
00:18:59
Speaker 1: It was.
00:19:00
Speaker 4: It was a platter for a party of.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: Twenty uh yeah yeah, so yeah, he ordered a last meal and then his execution got halted. We don't know if that we'll come back again that no one got halted because of some issues with conflict of interest on the parole board. We won't get into all that, but it is active. They could set they could kill that man any time between now and Christmas Eve on it do you think.
00:19:25
Speaker 3: I think that that's a very tall order and seems unlikely, you know what, But.
00:19:30
Speaker 2: You never know, not from a sentimental standpoint, but from everybody who just they want to be home for the holidays.
00:19:35
Speaker 1: I don't want to mess around with us.
00:19:37
Speaker 3: I think that that has a huge role in everyone's motivation.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: All right, well, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time with us. It's been I kind of believe how many death penalty and execution stories we've done this year. But it has been an extraordinary year for this country, and it's wrapping up in an extraordinary way, to the point that we're waiting to see what happens up to Christmas Eve on an execution, folks. That's always we appreciate you spending some time with that's for my dear Amy Robot.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: I am T. J. Holmes that we will talk to also
00:20:16
Speaker 2: M HM.