Wednesday
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For more local news, click over |
Wednesday
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For more local news, click over |
| Dateline: Bartow |
PROSECUTION AND DEFENSE REST
Day one is complete in the trial of the horrific murder of an eight-year-old Florida girl. The accused is her teenaged neighbor who allegedly hid her body underneath his waterbed. The defense appears to admit the 15 year old boy's guilt, but does not acknowledge a critical element of the state's case...was it panic or pre-meditated murder?
As 15 year old Joshua Phillips' murder trial opened, his attorney appeared to 
admit his client bludgeoned and stabbed eight year old made Clifton, then hid her body under his waterbed... But said his client is not a monster.
Richard Nichols, defense attorney: "Because of an act that began as an accident and deteriorated through panic that bordered on madness, he engaged in a monstrous act."
Harry Shorstein, state attorney: "This is a case about the brutal first degree murder of an eight year old child." Prosecutors say the girl was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed 11 times in the chest and neck.
Her alleged killer Joshua Phillips sat motionless eyes mostly gazing downward. In a statement to police, Joshua Phillips claimed he was playing baseball with made in his backyard and hit her in the head with a ball.
Phillips said the girl screamed, he got scared, dragged her into his bedroom and hit with the bat.
Shorstein: "He hit her with the bat to make her quiet. He said she started to moan so he got a knife and cut her throat with a stabbing motion."
Prosecutors say DNA tests indicate matte's blood on the knife and baseball bat. None was found on any baseball.
In a dramatic moment, prosecutors showed jurors the waterbed Phillips used to hide the youngster's body. And where he continued to sleep... Until his mother discovered the body a week later.
On his headboard, a flier of the missing girl. The night made disappeared, Phillips helped a massive community search to find her.
A first-degree murder conviction would bring a maximum life sentence. By admitting his role in matte's death, but insisting it wasn't pre-meditated, defense attorneys hope jurors will accept a manslaughter charge which carries a maximum 15-year sentence.
The prosecution layed out its case---- answering the question on exactly what happened to 8-year old Maddie Clifton.
The defense has its own version but admits Joshua Phillips did kill the little girl. "I gave her a big hug and a kiss and I said okay."
Once again Sheila Clifton had to remember those last moments when she saw her daughter Maddie. This time, on the witness stand.
"I said, 'where's Maddie?' and Jessie said, 'she's not with us, mom. She wasn't with us.' what do you mean she's not with you? Wasn't she playing outside with all of you? And she said, 'no, mom, I haven't seen her since I came out from my piano practice to play."
Moments before, opening statements, a time when prosecutors and the defendant's attorney lay out their blueprints for the trial.
State Attorney Harry Shorstein says Maddie Clifton and Joshua Phillips were playing baseball in Phillips' backyard that November evening, when the gruesome crime began to take shape, after Phillips hit the little girl in the head with a baseball. Prosecutors say Phillips took Maddie to his room.
"He said that inside the house, inside the room, Maddie started to yell, and he didn't want her to yell. He put his hand over her mouth but she continued to scream. Then he said he took the baseball bat and hit her on the head once or twice, but hit her hard. He hit her with the bat, he said, to make her be quiet."
Prosecutors say Phillips then went back and stabbed Maddie Clifton in the chest at least nine times. All those elements, prosecutors say, making this a first-degree, premeditated killing.
"Joshua Phillips is not a monster. But because of an act that began as an accident, and deteriorated through panic that bordered on madness."
NewsChannel 4 court reporter Ray Lane reported the story.
Maddie Clifton's death touched our entire community.
Countless people, as you know, searched for days to find her... Hoping for the best.
Now... some of those same residents are following her accused killer's trial.
Throughout Lakewood, there are question: "I really want to know why he did it, and what they're going to do about it..... And curiosity... To see what the outcome is, to see actually what happened."
...And at the core, a murder cases the alleged killer, a now 15-year-old kid. The victim... A little girl just half his age.
That's what so may claim they can't comprehend... And why summer camp bus drivers say they'll be tuning in to the TV news coverage when they get off work.
Valerie Thomas: "I guess the fact that it's a child that murdered another child, supposedly... And I don't know... It's just unbelievable that that could even happen."
And, happen in their own community.
A neighborhood that once captured the interest of the nation, and now sits in silence, with most of its resident called down to Bartow to testify.
And for those not so close to the case, like Lealia Joyner, TV is the only option.
After providing so many flowers and ribbons to the Clifton home, the pain is, at times, overwhelming.
"It kind of made us feel like it was part of our family." But that's why Linda mask won't watch the court case.
Not only has she heard enough from her clients, she says she feels too badly for everyone involved.
I don't want to see the pain ... Repeat for either of the families.
And that pain is evident.
On the Clifton's front door... A single red ribbon for all to see.
And just across the street, at Phillips' home... Eyes of a different kind scan the property for trespassers.
All reminders of the horror that happened here, and memories many would rather not relive. Unless you're really personally involved, why watch something like that all day long.
's Deborah Gianoulis and Ray Lane will have full details 