VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Cola Beale admitted to killing three people in Hampton Roads during a jailhouse interview Thursday.
Beale is accused of two killings in Virginia Beach and one slaying in Norfolk, and Beale told 13News Now he was prepared to kill again if police had not caught him.
“I snapped," Beale said. "Yes, I snapped."
Officers arrested Beale on Wednesday night in Hampton.
In the interview, Beale admitted to shooting and killing his girlfriend, Czavier Hill, on Tuesday, March 22, after the pair got into an argument about their relationship.
"I shot her in the head," he said.
Beale claimed he and Hill had been dating for 15 months. However, at one point in the interview, he said Hill "was about to move on to the next chapter of her life" and he grew frustrated with her relationship with her parents.
During an argument, Beale said he "snapped."
Beale told 13News Now that he planned to take his anger about the situation with Hill out on her dog. He said Hill told him not to do anything to the dog, and that if he was going to do something, he should do it to her.
"So I did that," he said. "I shot her in the head."
And Beale admitted he returned to set Hill's house on fire two days later.
Virginia Beach police officers found Hill dead from a gunshot wound in a burning home on Baccalaureate Drive in Campus East on March 24. A dog was dead in the home with her.
He claimed he was trying to make a point that Hill's family didn't really care about her and that none of her relatives would check on her.
Beale said adding to his frustration with his relationship were repercussions from a conviction on a sex crime that dated back several years. He stated that probation officers started to visit him concerning his probationary status.
He said he had no remorse for killing Hill or the other people whom police say he murdered: Clifton Baxter, 73, and Downing Mclean, 32.
Beale said in his jailhouse interview that Baxter was a father figure in his life.
"Mr. Baxter basically raised me," he explained. "I was with him for, like, 15 years."
"At the same time when I needed this and that and something to get on my feet, he’d tell me he didn’t have nothing," he said.
Virginia Beach police found Baxter dead at his home on Linda Court on March 25. Beale said he killed Baxter and took $20,000 that was inside his home.
Beale said Mclean was his cousin and was with him at the time of Baxter's murder. After Baxter's death, Beale claimed he planned to search for people he claims wanted to harm Mclean, and murder them. But at some point on March 24, Beale said he got into an argument with Mclean and killed him.
"I got fed up with him because he kept talking like you not about this," said Beale. "I’m like, 'Bruh, I just killed two people, you think I’m not ready to kill again?'”
Beale said he shot Mclean at a home on Sewells Point Road in Norfolk. Police found Mclean dead there on March 28.
Beale said a woman, who he described as Mclean's girlfriend, was in the home when he killed his cousin. Beale said he took her hostage and she was with him when police found him late Wednesday night.
Beale said he was actively looking for other people to hurt when members of the Hampton Police Division took him into custody at an Airbnb. Had that not happened, Beale said he would have hurt someone else.
"If they hadn’t picked me up last night, I definitely would have got out and let out some more steam," he said. "Because at the end of the day, nobody hears you when you talking reckless. You gotta' do something like this. Now everybody in your face trying to ask you questions."
“I don’t feel remorse about any of this at all. When you snap, you don’t think about remorse," said Beale.
When asked in the jailhouse interview if he was prepared to take whatever penalty he was given, Beale replied yes.
"I'm glad to take whatever it is because I've lived my life here," he said. "It's over with now."
Beale is currently booked in the Virginia Beach jail.
Why did he agree to an interview?
"Most of the time when people see something happening like this, the person that do it don't ever get to tell their side of the story," he said.