“If he felt he was justified, why didn’t he call the police and stay there?” Stearns added. “He died right there in front of his own church,” Stearns said of Phillips. Stearns told the jury Yeiter let his hate fester and fired that hate down the shotgun barrel into Phillips’ head. “If you’re mad at your boss, your wife, do you go get a gun and blow their heads off? That’s not how we act in a civilized society.”
“That’s what they want you to believe,” Stearns said. “A person is justified to use deadly physical force if he reasonably believes he’s threatened with physical force,” Johns said.Īssistant District Attorney Todd Stearns opened up the state’s final statements to the jury saying “Justified”. He also said the state was pointing out the fact that Yeiter left the church and came back, but questioned why Phillips didn’t leave. He said Phillips had mentally abused Yeiter and “pushed him over the edge”. Johns again told the jury the events that occurred in October, 2014 didn’t just happen that day but had been building up. “I’m asking you to find him guilty as charged of capital murder,” Billy said. You hang around to explain.”īilly also pointed to Yeiter’s taped confession when he admitted on multiple times killing Phillips and said he would do it again. “If you’re justified in doing something, you don’t run,” Billy said. “Yeiter is a coward, an absolute coward,” he said.īilly also told the jury if Yeiter felt he was justified in killing Phillips, why did he run? Yeiter should be held accountable.”īilly reminded the jury that after the initial confrontation at the church, Yeiter went back to his house, loaded his shotgun and came back and shot Phillips. Yeiter’s peers, but you are also a jury of Mr. In closing arguments, Billy told the jury they needed to hold Yeiter accountable for his actions saying he not only committed a crime against the Phillips family but the state of Alabama. Brett Yeiter die at the hands of the state of Alabama?”īilly readdressed the jury telling the members that Johns wanted to talk about the death penalty right off the bat but told them the first step is for them to listen to the evidence and decide guilt or innocence. “The state is seeking the death penalty,” Johns told the jury. “On the tape, you’ll hear that he said he killed Paul Phillips. “Our client has never denied shooting Mr. “Yeiter did intentionally cause the death of Paul Phillips,” Billy told the jury.īilly asked the jury to hear all the evidence, including Yeiter’s confession, and return a verdict of guilty of capital murder.ĭefense attorney Chuck Johns said the events leading up to Oct. He told the jury Yeiter then drove home, got his shotgun, came back and shot Phillips in the side of the head while he sat in his truck with his seatbelt on. 20-gauge shotgun out the window somewhere in Arkansas.ĭuring opening statements Friday, District Attorney Steve Billy told the jury Yeiter and Phillips had an argument outside the church which he said Yeiter instigated. He was later captured in Texas after admitting on the tape he tossed the. Yeiter left the scene, went to a nearby business, left his cell phone and fled.
BRETT WALKER CAUSE OF DEATH TRIAL
Evidence in the trial began Friday and the jury took less than two hours Tuesday afternoon to return a guilty verdict of capital murder against Yeiter.įollowing the jury’s 10-2 vote to sentence Yeiter to death, Circuit Judge Bert Rice sentenced him to death.ĭuring the trial, jurors heard a taped confession from Yeiter who said he killed Phillips and also said he would do it all over again if the events leading up to the shooting occurred today. 27, 2014, as Phillips sat in his parked truck outside of Acts Holiness Church, where Phillips served as pastor. Yeiter was convicted of shooting Phillips in the side of his head on Oct. That same jury found Yeiter guilty of capital murder Tuesday afternoon and under Alabama law there are only two sentences: death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. 27, 2014, shooting death of his father-in-law Paul Phillips. Brett Richard Yeiter will die by lethal injection following an Escambia County (Ala.) jury’s 10-2 vote Wednesday afternoon that Yeiter should die instead of spending the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Oct.
0 kommentar(er)
