PHOENIX — Multiple high-profile court cases are set to take place in Arizona this year. Several of these trials involve Valley residents accused of serial murders and other heinous crimes that captured national attention.
Here's the latest information on where these cases stand:
Rachel Henry
Alleged crimes: Rachel Henry was arrested on Jan. 21, 2020, after her three children were found dead in their Phoenix home near 24th Street and Southern Avenue. According to court paperwork, Henry told police that she suffocated the children and put them on the couch to make it look like they were sleeping. Henry was booked into jail on three charges of first-degree murder.
Status: In pre-trial conferences, currently pleading not guilty. MCAO is seeking the death penalty against Henry. The trial is set to begin in March 2024.
Lori Vallow
Alleged crimes: Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced to three life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders of her two children and her husband’s first wife. She now faces charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in two separate Arizona cases — conspiring in the 2019 murder of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and attempted murder of her ex-nephew-in-law, Brandon Boudreaux, also in 2019.
Status: A trial for both cases has been scheduled to begin on April 4, 2024. More trial dates are scheduled in August 2024. Daybell Vallow pleaded not guilty on both charges.
Cleophus Cooksey
Alleged crimes: Cleophus Cooksey was arrested in 2017 for killing nine people in the Phoenix area in a three-week period. The victims included his mother and stepfather. The killing spree happened shortly after he was released from prison for a manslaughter conviction for participating in a strip club robbery where an accomplice was killed.
Status: Cooksey pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial is set to begin on April 15, 2024.
Crystal Wilson
Alleged crimes: Crystal Wilson is facing one count of abandoning or concealing a body in connection to the case of Jesse Wilson, her adopted son, who she reported missing from Buckeye in 2016. His remains were found in the area in 2018. She was indicted and taken into custody in December 2022.
Status: Wilson pleaded not guilty. The trial is set to begin on Jan. 30, 2024.
Aaron Saucedo
Alleged crimes: Aaron Juan Saucedo was arrested in 2017 and accused of the Serial Street Shootings in Phoenix. That spree left nine people dead between August 2015 and July 2016. Saucedo was accused of 12 total shootings.
Status: Saucedo pleaded not guilty to all charges. A trial is set to begin in February 2024 with additional trial dates scheduled for February 2025. The trial was originally set for 2019, but it was pushed back three times - to 2021, 2022, and now 2024.
Zion Teasley
Alleged crimes: Zion Teasley is accused of stabbing and killing 29-year-old Lauren Heike on a hiking trail in north Phoenix in April 2023. He was released from prison just months before the killing.
Status: The State filed a notice seeking the death penalty. Trial dates are set to begin in January 2024 with additional dates scheduled through October 2025.
Essa Williams
Alleged crimes: Essa Williams is accused of shooting Phoenix Police Officer Tyler Moldovan multiple times in 2021. His mother, Erika LaRae Williams, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for buying the gun used in the shooting. Another man was also sentenced to six months in prison for providing a firearm. Officer Moldovan is still recovering from his injuries. Essa previously served time in prison for felony convictions.
Status: A trial assignment date is scheduled for April 2024.
Christoper Hoopes
Alleged crimes: Christopher Hoopes was charged with second-degree murder after Tempe police say he shot and killed his 25-year-old wife, Colleen, in the chest in the middle of the night. She was a dancer for Ballet Arizona, a professional dance company in Phoenix. He told police he awoke and thought there was an intruder in the home. Hoopes has pleaded not guilty.
Status: Hoopes pleaded not guilty. The trial has been postponed several times but is now set for February 2024. Hoopes is currently free on bond while he awaits trial, but he wears an ankle monitor and is confined to this home.
Roberto and Cristina Bernal
Alleged crimes: Roberto and Christina Bernal face charges including aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, prohibited possessor, and kidnapping. The charges are related to the death of 31-year-old Anthony Vayne and injuries to another man, who was found alive while held against his will in Buckeye during the summer of 2023. Another man who had been reported missing, Chad Holvig, was also found dead on the property.
Status: Trial dates are scheduled for January 2024.
Stephanie Davis and Thomas Desharnais
Alleged crimes: Stephanie Marie Davis, and her husband, Thomas James Desharnais, were both arrested after police found an injured 11-year-old at an extended stay hotel in Scottsdale. The child was taken to a hospital where he died, police say. Investigators allege ongoing abuse against the victim.
Status: Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the pair. A second death penalty notice was filed in December against Desharnais after the killing of his cellmate at Lower Buckeye Jail. Trial dates are scheduled for April 2024.
Yui Inoue
Alleged crimes: Yui Inoue is accused of murdering her two children on May 15, 2021. Tempe police were called to an apartment complex near U.S. 60 and Mill Avenue where Inoue flagged them down. She reported to detectives she was hearing voices telling her to kill her children. When officers arrived at the apartment they located the bodies of her two children, a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, who were dead and had been severely mutilated.
Status: Inoue is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. A mental examination was requested to determine Inoue's mental competency and in September 2023, it was determined she was competent to stand trial. Her trial is scheduled to begin on Feb. 29, 2024.
