Julia Phillips accused of killing her boyfriend, 79-year-old attorney Melvin Roberts, in February 2010
Phillips told police she was bound and wrapped with duct tape by Hispanic attacker her robbed her and then killed Roberts
Prosecution claims woman was afraid Roberts was planning to break up with her stop supporting her financially
Mystery DNA was found at crime scene that did not belong to either Roberts or Phillips; prosecution suspect woman had accomplice
The defense rested today in the trial of a South Carolina woman accused of murdering her boyfriend in 2010, and then blaming the crime on a bogus Hispanic assailant.
Julia Phillips, of Gafney, was arrested in 2010 and charged with murder in the slaying of the town's former mayor, 79-year-old Melvin Roberts, who was her live-in boyfriend.
Roberts was a popular defense attorney for a half century. He served on York city council in the 1960s and was elected to a 2-year term as mayor in 1972. Roberts lost a 1976 run for the South Carolina Senate.
On February 4, 2010, Roberts was discovered strangled to death on his property. Police said a bullet hole was found in the victim's clothing, but the round did no strike the man.
At the time, Phillips told investigators that a stranger who appeared Hispanic broke into their home, robbed her, wrapped her head and face with duct tape, bound her wrists and ankles with zipties, shoved her in the mud and then attacked her boyfriend.
The woman told police her assailant was a man between 5 feet 9 and 5 feet 11, weighing 200-240 pounds and that he spoke with an accent.
Following a three-month investigation, police reached a conclusion that Phillips was the one who murdered Roberts and then tried to make it look like a burglary gone awry committed by a stranger, the station WBTV reported.
According to investigators and the prosecution, Phillips was likely in cahoots with another person, who has never been identified. This theory was partially based on the presence of foreign DNA on the zipties used to bind Phillips’ wrists and ankles.
On Wednesday, which marked the 7th day of the trial, one of Phillips' attorneys told the presiding judge that the defendant has decided not to testify.
Before the jury entered the courtroom in York, Phillips personally told the judge her decision regarding her testimony.
'I've been up since 4am praying and in all my interest, best not to,' she said, adding, 'I grew up a Christian. I am a Christian. My confidence is in God not the courtroom.'
The prosecution rested in the trial Tuesday after calling more than 20 witnesses.
The case against Phillips rests on several small but crucial pieces of evidence, including traces of gunshot residue found on the woman's blouse, and the fact that on the night of the murder, her clothes were not wet, even though she had claimed that the mystery attacker pushed her into the mud.
The defense has claimed that the gunshot residue could have come from different locations.
But according to a forensic scientist testifying for the prosecution, the smudge proves that Phillips was not behind a brick wall at the time of the murder, as she had claimed, but rather close to the gun.
Prosecutors called a dozen different witnesses testified about Phillips' inconsistent and often contradictory statements.
On their part, the woman’s attorneys called a private investigator hired by the defense, who told the court about his failed attempts to identify the owner of the mystery DNA found at the crime scene, as well as some of her neighbors.
Jerome French, who lived near Roberts’ house in 2010, testified that he saw two men he did not know walking from a wooded area around the time of the murder.
Another neighbor, Gina Bass, told the jury that twice during the week of Roberts' slaying she spotted a black Lincoln operated by a young African-American man enter and exit the former mayor's driveway at a high speed.
The prosecution said the murder plot was financially motivated because Phillips feared that Roberts, a long-time attorney and former mayor, was going to break up with her and stop giving her money – a support she had come to rely on after her boutique had fallen on hard times.
However, her attorney Bobby Frederick noted that his client still had resources after Roberts’ death, as evidenced by the fact that she was able to pay $50,000 for her defense. She also had family to care for her.
Under cross examination, Frederick’s paralegal and wife clarified that it was Phillips' sister who has been covering her trial costs.
A former investigator with the State Law Enforcement Division testified that police believed two people were involved in the murder, one of them being Phillips.
Scott Williams said when he interviewed the woman two weeks after the murder, her story kept changing.
He said Phillips couldn't explain how she was able to talk to the attacker if her mouth was covered with duct tape, and how she saw her attacker had curly hair or dreadlocks and a tan coat with her eyes covered.
SCRIPTURES:
John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Psalm 58:3
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Psalm 58:4
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
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