State Supreme Court Rules Sean Phillips Must Stand Trial for Murder

[XLFD]

According to John Hausman of Mlive:

LUDINGTON, MI – The Michigan Supreme Court has upheld the "Baby Kate" murder case against the long-vanished infant's father, Sean Michael Phillips, ruling that the case can proceed to trial.

In a one-sentence order released Wednesday, March 9, the high court denied Phillips' request to appeal an Oct. 22 judgment by the Michigan Court of Appeals upholding the murder case.

In that October 2015 decision, the three-judge panel ruled unanimously that a Mason County circuit court judge properly reinstated the murder case after Mason County District Judge Peter Wadel dismissed it at the preliminary examination stage. Wadel had ruled that there wasn't probable cause to support sending the murder case to trial.

Phillips, 26, is charged with open murder in the disappearance of his 4 ½-month-old daughter, Katherine Phillips. The baby was last seen nearly five year ago, allegedly with her father.

On Dec. 5, 2014, Mason County 51^st Circuit Judge Richard I. Cooper (since retired) ruled to allow the prosecution of the murder case against Phillips. The Michigan Attorney General's office and Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola are prosecuting the case jointly.

Cooper's ruling overturned Wadel's September 2014 decision to dismiss the murder case against Phillips.

In a separate case, Attorney General Bill Schuette and Spaniola are appealing a circuit judge's decision that Wadel – the judge who once ruled the murder case too weak to go to trial – can preside over the trial itself.

RELATED: Missing baby murder case against dad can go to trial, appeals court...

Baby Kate vanished June 29, 2011, in Mason County. She has never been found.

After a preliminary examination, Wadel Sept. 15, 2014, ruled that there wasn't proof the baby had been killed, so he refused to bind Phillips over for trial in circuit court.

But Cooper overturned that ruling, even while expressing doubt about the wisdom of the prosecution pursuing its purely circumstantial no-body case.

Phillips appealed that ruling. The appeal is now over.

In the other proceeding in the complicated Baby Kate case, the Michigan Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision Dec. 30 rejected Schuette's application to appeal a visiting judge's ruling that Wadel was within his rights to appoint himself the trial judge for Phillips' murder case in circuit court.

Wadel made that self-appointment as Mason County's chief judge – even though district judges don't normally handle felony trials – because the county's only other judges both have conflicts in the Phillips case.

Schuette's office argues that Wadel cannot fairly preside over the murder trial because he has already, as a district judge, concluded it does not merit trial.

Schuette then filed an application for leave to appeal to the state supreme court. That application is pending.

Phillips, formerly of the Scottville area, is already serving a prison term of 10 to 15 years for unlawful imprisonment of his daughter. A Mason County jury convicted him of that in April 2012.

His earliest possible release date is June 29, 2021. He could stay in prison until June 2026 if the parole board doesn't release him sooner.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2016/03/long-missing_b...

[Jasper]

Judge Wadel had it right. There is no evidence Sean Phillips even harmed or for that matter killed Baby Kate. Spaniola is a poor excuse for a PA. He could not handle the case and had to request assistance from the AG. BTW whatever happened to all that plant material gathered and sprouted by the experts? If Sean and or his family had a crap ton of money to have a high profile attorney rather then court appointed, Sean would not be sitting in prison. The current justice system is a train wreck from hell. It serves the wealthy.

[XLFD]

What's the difference between a jellyfish and current Mason County court-appointed defense attorney David Glancy?

One is a poisonous, spineless, blob, the other is a form of sea life.

The only hope for Sean Phillip to avoid the rap, despite the evidence against him being suspect and the likely prospect of a judicious Judge Wadel being the trial judge, is for the state to provide him with the same caliber attorneys they provided him during the open murder arraignment hearings, and have them do the majority of work, like the AG's Donna Pendergast did for the state's case. 

[Willy]

This situation is definitely going in Phillips favor. If this does go to trial, and I were Phillips, I would not request a jury trial. I would request that Judge Wadel decide the verdict. Unless some new damaging evidence is provided by the prosecution Judge Wadel will again rule in favor of Phillips. Most people don't realize that some cases are better decided by judges who are supposed to follow the law and not make emotional rulings as many juries do. I also think it is mistake to prosecute Phillips at this time because he may be found not guilty since the evidence is thin at best. If that happens and more evidence is found in the future that connects Phillips to murder, it will be to late to prosecute him because of double jeopardy. 

And as Jasper stated how can someone be convicted of murder when there is only speculation and no evidence of a murder