Arizona Serial Killer Sentenced To Die For String Of Murders

An Arizona man who went on a three-week killing spree in 2017 was sentenced to death.

Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, murdered eight people, including his mother and stepfather, CBS News reported. His other victims were selected at random.

"Anyone who questions why we need the death penalty needs to look no further than this case," Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a news release to Arizona's Family. "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 for him, and we will do everything in our power to see it carried through."

Cooksey's crime spree also included kidnapping, armed robbery, and attempted sexual assault. According to CBS News, Cooksey's victims included two men shot to death in a parked car, a security guard who was walking to his girlfriend's apartment, and a woman who Cooksey kidnapped and assaulted.

CBS News reported that Cooksey, after Cooksey murdered his mother, police searched the mother's apartment and found evidence tying him to the other crimes. Among the evidence was a gun used in the killings and various possessions of the victims.

Arizona's Family reported that the killings started just months after Cooksey, an aspiring musician, was released from prison for robbing a strip club.