YORK, S.C. — As the murder trial of Julia Phillips entered its third day of testimony, jurors got an earful from the woman charged with the crime.
Prosecutors continued playing hours of recorded interviews that York police did with Phillips. The first was the night of the slaying, only hours after the death of her long-time boyfriend Melvin Roberts.
On the video you can see that Phillips is still bruised, scratched, and has duct tape wrapped around her head. Police pointed out that the duct tape was neatly wrapped around her like a head band, not haphazardly like you'd expect during a violent attack.
Police said that was one of many signs that Phillips wasn't telling the truth.
At one point, police Lt. Dale Edwards asked Phillips if she ever did anything to harm Roberts.
"Absolutely not," she quickly replied.
She said she wanted to go to him, after hearing a gunshot, but couldn't.
"I wanted to get out of the car and go touch him, and see if he was OK, but I was too afraid," she said.
Roberts had been shot at, hit in the head with a heavy object, and strangled to death with a zip tie.
Phillips claimed that on the night of Feb. 4, 2010, she had just come home to Roberts' house in York when an unknown attacker grabbed her from behind, and threw her to the ground in the mud.
She said he tied her up with duct tape, and had to repeat the process three or four times because the heavy rain made it difficult for the tape to stay on her.
Earlier in the week, the jury heard testimony that Phillips said she was pushed face down in the mud, and was on the wet ground in the rain for 30 minutes. However, prosecutors showed pictures of her clothes that didn't appear extremely wet or dirty.
Police said that several inconsistencies in her story first led them to suspicion, then to name her as a suspect.
Throughout the lengthy interviews, Phillips' mood swings from quiet and tearful, to seemingly joking with officers, and constantly changing the subject.
Police said she was "using misdirection" during the entire process.
In court, Roberts' two sons, David and Ronnie Roberts, were also watching the interviews, along with several other family members. Ronnie Roberts told Channel 9, seeing it was shocking. He couldn't believe Phillips was so calm only hours after the brutal slaying.
"It's like it's a game to her," Roberts said. "She's too cheerful and happy. It's just weird."
At one point on the video, Phillips' tells police that she didn't think Roberts, at age 79, had much longer to live.
"I sort of knew, and Melvin knew, that maybe his days on earth weren't long, but we didn't think they were going be that short," she said.
Prosecutors showed the jury the separate police interviews to draw attention to changes in the story Phillips told them.
One of the biggest was Phillips claiming it was a robbery, but then making this comment, three days after the slaying, "I couldn't have been money they were after. I never saw the man take my money. I don't believe that. I think someone had it out of him."
Later, the jury heard from 66-year-old Ronnie Burgess, who testified that Phillips' son Hunter Stevens was at his house in Gaffney on the night of the killing, fixing his computer for him.
Burgess said that Stevens got a call from Julia, and seemed instantly upset.
He asked Burgess to drive him to York to where his mother was. Burgess said Stevens had a revolver in his pocket, but they left it at Burgess' house because Stevens said he shouldn't have a gun at a crime scene.
Burgess said later that same night, he drove Phillips and Stevens back home to Gaffney around three in the morning, after hours of police interviews.
He said mother and son spoke in the car, but he was not allowed to testify about what they said to each other.
WSOC
