YORK COUNTY, S.C. — The second day of the trial for a York County woman accused of killing her boyfriend got underway Tuesday, but not without some commotion outside the courthouse.
Julia Phillips is accused of killing former York mayor Melvin Roberts, 79, on Feb. 4, 2010.
As she arrived at the courthouse, Phillips swung her purse at a Rock Hill Herald reporter and threatened to see him and a photographer who was shooting video, the Herald reported.
On Tuesday, a York County jury heard a dramatic 911 call from Julia Phillips on the night of the murder of Melvin Roberts.
On the tape you can hear Phillips crying and yelling. At one point she is heard saying "don't leave me!" to the dispatcher. She also repeatedly asks when police are going to arrive on the scene at Roberts' home.
In her opening statement, prosecutor Kris Hodge called Phillips a greedy and desperate woman who knew her lavish lifestyle was about to end, so she resorted to murder.
Phillips is accused of killing her boyfriend, 79-year-old Melvin Roberts, on Feb. 4, 2010. Roberts died by strangulation, but had also been struck in the head and shot at. He was not hit .by the bullet.
Roberts was a prominent defense lawyer, businessman, and former mayor of the city of York.
As for the motive for the murder, police and prosecutors said Roberts was about to end his relationship with Phillips and cut off financial support to her. They said she planned to kill him before he could write her out of his will.
Defense attorney Bobby Fredrick told the jury that the day of the murder was Phillips' birthday, and she had planned a special night for the couple.
She had bought liquor and was wearing pink thong underwear when she arrived at his house that night.
"They had lived together for 10 years," Fredrick said. "She often called him her husband. They'd been together and lived together a long time."
However, when officers arrived on the night of the murder they said Phillips acted strangely, asking where Roberts was, though his body was only a few feet away from her.
"She looked over my shoulder several times, right there at where he was laying," said York police Capt. Brian Trail. "I found that odd."
"She just kept saying, 'I can't find my husband, he's around here somewhere'," York said.
On Tuesday, the jury saw pictures of the duct tape wrapped around Phillips' arms and legs. She claimed she was attacked and tied up outside Roberts' home.
However, police showed jurors the actual duct tape, pointing out that it appeared to be neatly cut in pieces with smooth edges, and wasn't ripped or torn.
Phillips claimed the incident was a robbery, but nothing was taken from her or Roberts, and police say Phillips and an accomplice staged the scene to look like a robbery.
Phillips told police the unknown attacker grabbed her from behind, and she dropped her groceries she was carrying behind a brick retaining wall where she was pushed to the ground. However, that grocery bag was later found in her car instead.
Prosecutors also showed pictures of Phillips' clothing. Police testified that they weren't as wet or muddy as they should be if someone had been tied up on the ground for 30 minutes on a rainy night, as she claimed.
There were also pictures shown of a bank bag on the ground that Phillips had brought home from the store she ran in Gaffney. It was open, and still had $90 dollars inside it.
Another picture showed the wallet belonging to Melvin Roberts. It was still in his back pocket and contained several hundred dollars, untouched.
Phillips described the robber as a black or Hispanic man, wearing a brown jacket. Footprints were found leading from the back of the house into some woods, but the shoe prints police recovered didn't turn up any leads.
Trail said Phillips sat in her car at the crime scene for an hour, and never got out, or asked officers any questions about Roberts, or what happened to him.
In court, Fredrick appeared to argue that Phillips wasn't rational, because she also forgot the color of her own purse when she was talking to police.
Family members of the victim bowed their heads and looked distraught when crime scene pictures were shown, some showing Roberts' body face down on his back patio.
A jury of seven women and five men will continue hearing the case on Wednesday.
WSOC
