Opinion ID: 2299781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 20

Heading: Lance Philips

Text: On July 21, 1991, the victim, a twenty-year-old male, and a seventeen-year-old female were at the home of an eleven-year old girl preparing cocaine for distribution. That afternoon, Lance Philips paid them a visit. The seventeen-year-old continued preparing the cocaine as Philips spoke. The twenty-year-old male showed Philips a blue bag containing approximately one-half kilogram of cocaine. Philips then left. The seventeen year old female went to sleep in the living room, while her sister and the twenty-year-old went out on the front porch. Later that day, Philips and two co-defendants went to the house dressed in black, with black hoods, ski masks, or other material covering their faces. The twenty-year-old ran into the house and attempted to close the door. Two of the men ran after the twenty-year-old, while Philips grabbed the sister, pointed a gun at her head, and fired. The shot missed, and she fled and hid. Philips struggled with the twenty-year-old, and then shot him five times. Philips and one of his co-defendants each shot the seventeen-year-old. Another of the men shot the eleven-year-old in the chest. They then shot the twenty-year-old again. Only the twenty-year-old died from his injuries. The assailants left with the bag of cocaine. Philips eventually gave a statement to the police in which he admitted his involvement in the shooting. He also named the two men that accompanied him. One of the co-defendants also gave a statement, and he led the police to a storage bin containing more than three hundred vials of cocaine, drug paraphernalia, handguns, rifles, and a variety of ammunition. Philips was convicted of murder, felony murder, armed robbery, two counts of attempted murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and unlawful possession of a weapon. Philips had been indicted on three counts of attempted murder; however, for one of the counts of attempted murder, the jury found Philips guilty of the lesser included offense of aggravated assault. For murder, Philips was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment with a thirty-year parole bar. The remainder of his sentence is as follows: for armed robbery, twenty years with a ten-year parole bar, consecutive to the sentence for murder; for the first count of attempted murder, twenty years, with a ten-year parole bar, consecutive to the other sentences; for the second count of attempted murder, a concurrent twenty-year term with a ten-year parole bar; for aggravated assault, a concurrent eighteen-month term; and for unlawful possession of a weapon, a concurrent five-year term. The remaining convictions merged. The AOC classifies this case as having aggravating factor c(4)(g), contemporaneous felony, and mitigating factors c(5)(c), defendant's age, and c(5)(h), the catch-all factor. At the time of the offense, Philips was nineteen-years-old and living with his mother. He is the father of one child. He is a high school dropout. It is not certain whether Philips was employed at the time of the crime, though he had previously worked as a cleanup person at a restaurant. Philips denied ever having used drugs or alcohol, though he has tested positive for cocaine and marijuana in the past. Additionally, police reports from a prior arrest note that Philips was under the influence of alcohol. As a juvenile, Philips was adjudicated delinquent on seven occasions. As an adult he had prior convictions for possession of a controlled dangerous substance and for possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.