Baby Kate Trial: Testimony of Kim Phillips (Sean's Mother)

[XLFD]

Originally, the prosecution against Sean Phillips had lined up Sean's mom (Kim Phillips) to testify immediately after his dad, Larry Phillips.  But her testimony could not fit in easily before lunch that day, so she turned out to be the day's last witness on April 24, 2012 during the second week of the trial, following a series of four forensic experts MSP's MacDonald, and MSU's Crum, Telewski and Carrington. 

 

Kim Phillips, like her husband, has worked at a respectable job over a long period of time, and is specifically noted as being an excellent housekeeper at their country estate.  Their daughter goes to college, their son is in the National Guard.  Beyond the events that happened on June 29, 2011 and its aftermath, this could be an archetypical American family.  One begins to wonder, if one dwells on the thought, of how the son could have been drawn into the series of events that was portrayed in this case that led to secretly confining an individual, and has been speculated on after the trial as cold blooded murder of a baby.  Did the defense attorney err by not using both parents to establish a foundation of the positive characteristics of Sean Phillips?

 

The most relevant parts of her testimony deal with about a 45 minute period of time when Sean arrived home, talked with his mom, called the number of the policeman who stopped over, and waited for them to arrive.  Her testimony indicates that her son had been very concerned about being caught with illegal fireworks, purchased earlier that afternoon and stored in his car.  He attempts to hide those effects, and yet Sean does nothing to hide the baby paraphernalia within the car, in his back pocket, nor does he try to clean or destroy evidence of wrongdoing as regards Kate in any way-- according to his mother-- nor does he show any irregular concern regarding what is said to him.

 

Sean does not act as if he has just killed his own daughter, or even as if he has given her away to someone else.  He does keep secrets; he can hold those secrets for a long time, as he has proved over the last two years, and that includes keeping information from his parents.  But what is the extent of the secret here?  That secret is the key to solving this missing person case.

 

 

NEXT UP:  More phone forensics, with Michigan State Police Detective James MacDonald.