VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The trial is underway for a man accused of a killing spree in Hampton Roads.
Cola Beale is charged with three murders from March of 2022: two happened in Virginia Beach, while the third happened in Norfolk. He's accused of killing his girlfriend Czavier Hill, his cousin Downing McLean, and Clifton Baxter, a person he considered to be a father figure.
Virginia Beach police found Hill and her dog dead in a house fire that prosecutors believe Beale intentionally set. The day after the fire, police officers found Baxter shot to death in his home.
Investigators later arrested Beale in connection to both deaths and prosecutors say he then admitted to also shooting and killing his cousin during an argument afterward.
Beale told 13News Now in a jailhouse interview that he killed all three within days of each other. In the interview, Beale said he did not feel any remorse over their deaths and added that if police had not found him, he would have continued killing more people.
Prosecutors began opening statements with the last words Czavier Hill told her accused killer and boyfriend, Cola Beale: "Take me, take my life instead, but please don't hurt my dog."
Beale said Hill begged for her dog's life as he tied her to her bed and shot her. He said in a taped confession to police, "I shut her up because she was making too much noise."
Beale then said he set the home on fire, with the dog still inside. Both Hill and her dog died.
In an interview with 13News Now - Beale stood by the same statements he made to police.
"I was going to set that **** on fire, and her dog too," said Beale.
Beale's attorney told jurors his client snapped due to the stress Beale had with an unrelated sex charge he recently pleaded to, as well as stress from Hill's family "interfering" in their lives together.
However, the prosecution told a different story, as they said Beale acted coldly and methodically as Beale then admitted to murdering a man he considered a father figure days after Hill's death.
"Even though I tell you in distress what I need and you don't have it and now I have to kill you and then I find out you had everything I needed," said Beale.
Beale admitted to shooting and killing Clifton Baxter. He said he went to Baxter -- who he described as his "Pops" -- and asked for money. Baxter refused and Beale said he shot him.
Attorneys said the trial is expected to last several days.