Earlier this morning I opined on our sister site on Facebook, the Ludington Pitchfork:  "On July 31st, Judge Peter Wadel said he would be giving us a decision within two weeks on whether to allow a murder trial in circuit court for Sean Phillips.  Whether it was two actual weeks or two business weeks, that time period would be up at the end of August 13.  It is now September 15, 33 days after that self-imposed deadline.  'Thumb's up' or 'thumb's down', not 'thumb's up your butt', Peter."

 

I don't know whether he got the message or not but a decision has been made, and it was exactly what I had been forecasting in private conversations due to the long hiatus by Honorable Judge Wadel:  There will be no murder charges against Sean Phillips in the disappearance of Baby Kate, his biological daughter.

 

Prosecutor Paul Spaniola and Attorney General can now devote their time to their re-election campaigns now that this high-profile debacle they created out of nothing has been revealed as exactly that. 

 

Citing a lack of evidence of criminal action, 79th District Court Judge Peter Wadel today dismissed murder charges against Sean Phillips in the disappearance of Katherine Elizabeth Phillips, also known as “Baby Kate.”

                                                                                

Phillips is serving 10-15 years for unlawful imprisonment in the disappearance, but earlier this year, the Michigan Attorney General’s office and Mason County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Spaniola brought the new charge.

                                                        

Wadel’s decision comes after a preliminary hearing convened in April and again in July on the charges.

In his seven-page decision, Wadel notes that the prosecution failed to present any real evidence other than a prison letter ostensibly written by Sean.

“This case is about an infant who has been missing now for over three years,” Wadel writes. “The baby cannot be found despite the diligent efforts of law enforcement. A baby is not deceased merely because she is missing, especially since the Defendant indicated that he gave her away for private, non-legal, adoption. The only proofs presented that the baby is dead comes from Defendant’s letter to Ariel Courtland. When used to establish that the baby is dead, the letter then becomes the source for how the baby died, by accident and not by criminal agency.

“The prosecution has failed to show that the crime of open murder has been committed because the proofs failed to show death by a criminal act of Defendant. This case is dismissed.”

http://www.shorelinemedia.net/ludington_daily_news/news/local/artic...

 
 

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Thanks to the Mason County Press we have the full opinion.  Please comment on whether you agree or disagree.    

I think Judge Wadel made a GREAT thing at letting Sean go their is no proof n it sounds like all hear say, and you can't go on that so they say, that's odd how some cases go on hear say n other don't? don't you think so? their is no baby kate, and  from what I been reading  about Sean sounds like a good dad, maybe he walked in and caught the mother doing something to the baby and she killed the baby. and thats why he drove off cause he was so upset he didnt know what to do  or he saw someone hurting the baby in away that was not right, or he caught the mother in bed with someone something had to of happen between him n her for him to just leave I don't think the mother is playing with a full deck maybe someone should be watching her. I'am glad Sean is out now maybe the justice system will find more people that just not be in places they do not belong either, GOOD WORK JUDGE WADEL!!!!

After the decision, the aforementioned prosecutor and attorney general, fresh from defeat, announced they will waste even more money trying to prosecute a murder they have no proof for.  It sells well to the uninformed public:

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola today announced they will appeal 79th District Court Judge Peter Wadel’s dismissal of the open murder charge against Sean Phillips, 23, of Victory Township, in the death of his daughter, Katherine Phillips, the Mason County infant missing for two years and known as “Baby Kate” in the media. Attorney General Schuette and Prosecutor Spaniola charged Phillips with murder in October 2013. Schuette will appeal the dismissed charge against Phillips in 51st Circuit Court.

“Baby Kate deserves full justice. We will not settle for any less,” said Schuette. “As attorney general, it is my job to ensure every victim across our state has a voice no matter who you are or where you live.”

“We have already decided that the pursuit of justice for Baby Kate is to appeal this decision and have the circuit judge review the evidence which we presented at the preliminary examination,” said Paul Spaniola, Mason County Prosecutor.

http://www.masoncountypress.com/2014/09/15/prosecutors-will-appeal-...

I agree with Judge Wadel. There is no evidence of murder and Phillip's letter indicates the baby's death was an accident. The only problem I have with all of this is that if the baby's death was an accident or he gave up the baby for adoption then why didn't Phillip use either scenario as his defense? There still is something very fishy about all of this.

If you rely on Facebook chatter on the long-standing Baby Kate sites there is a lot of disgust and bile with Judge Wadel's decision eclipsing what I believe is a good decision, which could lead us closer to the truth than another trial based on suppositions made for political gain by MCPA Spaniola and AG Schuette. 

Unfortunately, now that both politicians have decided to appeal Wadel's decision we still have them covering up the full investigation from other investigatory agencies and the people who want to find out what happened to Baby Kate.  With an appeal, they can block FOIAs using their usual specious methods of saying it would interfere with investigations and trials.

Fortunately, there are still a lot of long-term followers of the Baby Kate case that find Judge Wadel's decision a positive one, as he effectively declares that we still don't know whether Baby Kate is dead or not.  Wouldn't it be something if a jury were to convict Phillips of murder just to have Katherine Shelbie Elizabeth Phillips show up several years later as a teenager, a modern day Anastasia?

Maybe their was never a baby in the first place? or the mother aboarded it herself and told Sean cause maybe they got into a fight and she was jeoulus cause she figured he showed more love for the kid so she got read of baby kate and wanted his attention and thought her life would be more better w/o baby kate in it and she would get more attention. Or their is a 3rd party invault and the mother and a helper told her how to  put the blame on Sean so he would take the fall for it.and it would have to be someone who's very smart at what they are doing cause i believe that mother is not telling all her truth storys either look at her in some of the court room time on the stand she was smiling like , crazy?

WOW it is true So ,then why was the story made up to began with The stress that Sean must be going thur, This goes to show its either all lies from another women or she had help in the plot also. Well I hope the LADY WINS AS JUDGE  and she see's thur all these women who tell lies, n plots just for the fun of it, is all wrong !!!!!!.

Let's all remember, Sean Phillips still needs to serve his 10-15 years for unlawful imprisonment, Judge Wadel (who follows the law and was determining whether the murder trial should occur) deemed the prosecutor and attorney general didn't have enough evidence to suggest Sean murdered the baby. 

To follow through with Willy's line of thought, the defense of Sean Phillips for the original trial, Annette Smedley, would have probably suggested a 'no scenario' defense precisely so it would be harder for the prosecution to focus on one scenario over another, particularly if the scenario could have been 'perceptionally disqualified' in some manner. 

Think about it-- throughout the trial we only had the word of Ariel that Sean had drove off with Baby Kate, nobody else had seen the baby since the previous night.  For about 15 hours, Baby Kate was with her mother all alone before Sean showed up.  Sean goes missing for about 1.5 hours, possibly with Baby Kate, and gets charged with murder.  In reality, what we have here is a classic 'he said- she-said' scenario where the prosecutor has decided to back the 'she', under the reason that the lead detective said was because Ariel's whereabouts that afternoon, after she phoned in the alleged abduction, were known and Sean's wasn't.

This doesn't address the very reasonable possibility of Baby Kate being dead or given away before Sean showed up that day.  There exist scenarios that actually make a lot better sense than the one that the prosecution is trying to sell, given the entirety of the evidence that has been publicly released and the actions of the principals before and after the disappearance.

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