Richmond Phillips DC Police Officer Charged With Murder After Woman & Baby Found Dead

[Sister Iroz]

Jaylin Wright

Wynetta Wright

Richmond Phillips

A Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with murder after the bodies of a 20-year-old woman and her 1-year-old daughter were found Thursday night near Hillcrest Heights Community Center days after the woman's grandmother reported them missing.

Richmond D. Phillips, 39, who lives minutes from the community center, has been charged with first- and second-degree murder and one count of manslaughter in the deaths of Wynetta Shamonta Wright of District Heights and her daughter, Jaylin Wright, according to Lt. Col. Gary Cunningham, a spokesman for the Prince George's County Police Department, which is investigating the case, and Prince George's County District Court records.

Wynetta Wright's body was found at approximately 7 p.m. Thursday lying in Oxon Run Stream Valley Park, near the community center in the 2300 block of Oxon Run Drive, with "obvious trauma," and her daughter's body was found nearby inside a green Saturn parked in a lot on the corner of 23rd Parkway and Southern Avenue, Cunningham said.

He said investigators are still determining the cause of death for both victims, but the baby may have died from exposure to heat in the car.

Wynetta Wright was last seen Monday in Suitland, the day before she and Phillips were scheduled to appear in Prince George's County Circuit Court for a child-support hearing. Her grandmother reported her and the infant missing to Baltimore County police, Cunningham said.

At a news conference Friday afternoon at Prince George's police headquarters, officials declined to confirm the relationship between Wright and Phillips.

The same night the bodies were found, Phillips met with Prince George's County police detectives and gave a statement, although police declined to confirm whether the statement led them to the bodies.

Wynetta Wright, who lived in an apartment in the 3200 block of Walters Lane in District Heights, was last seen in the 3300 block of Curtis Drive in Suitland, about two miles from the community center and Phillips' home in the 2900 block of Oxon Park Street in Temple Hills.

[...]

In October 2009, Phillips was among several Metropolitan Police First District vice officers awarded for service to the Washington, D.C., community.

Phillips, who does not have an attorney listed with the Prince George's County District Court, is being held on a no-bond status. He is scheduled to appear in district court the morning of July 1.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/06032011/prinnew151829_32544.php

[...]

Phillips had been subpoenaed to appear at a Tuesday morning hearing to establish paternity at the Prince George’s County courthouse, according to court records. Wynetta Wright alleged that Phillips fathered Jaylin Wright, who was born last June 6, the papers said.

A short time after police found Wright, they found her car, also in the park. Jaylin still was in her
car seat, and Cunningham suggested she may have died from heat exposure during the brutally hot week. The baby’s body had no signs of trauma, he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...d-in-pr-georges/2011/06/03/AGpu6yHH_blog.html

 

[Obsolete]

He's a fucking cop? Seriously? No really..seriously?

 

[AngelFire]

[MENTION=2450]Obsolete[/MENTION], girl I hollered the same thing. I can't look at him and see Police Officer, more like crackhead

BTW...Baby and momma were a dream to the eyes. What a good looking baby and momma and here we are stuck with the murderous Swamp Thing

 

[Robynne]

I bet that poor baby did die from being stuck in the car. If only someone would have found (or reported) them sooner.

 

[Bridget217]

The mom had the sweetest face, pretty and so damned young. The baby is adoreable of course. Both dead. Then you have the ugliest fucker I have seen in a long time, a cop and pure evil. He even looks evil and is so ugly I swear I can almost smell it. He will be "oh so popular" in the big house. A woman/baby killing ex-cop. The guards will invite the prisoners to beat his ass. I wish I could watch.

 

[Salepo]

I thought you had to be neatly groomed and not be stoned to be a cop.

 

[Abroad]

I thought you had to be neatly groomed and not be stoned to be a cop.

<sarcasm>Maybe he was under-cover</endsarcasm> :rant:

 

[beans]

Oh that fucker was maybe thinking after killing mom, park the car and someone would find the baby. This is a heartbreaker, thats a fact.

 

[Dakota]

Prince George’s County prosecutors say a D.C. police officer shot his mistress and left their infant child to “cook” in an overheated car.

State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks said during opening statements Monday that Richmond Phillips committed the crimes because he was involved in a paternity dispute with the woman and didn’t want to pay child support.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...f80ad6-5e38-11e2-8acb-ab5cb77e95c8_story.html

About 20 friends and relatives of the victims crowded into the courtroom Monday morning as attorneys on both sides delivered opening statements.

Prosecutors called Phillips a “deceptive, double-sided man.”

Authorities allege that Phillips, 39, lured Wright into a wooded area near Hillcrest Heights in late May of 2011 and shot her to death. He then allegedly left Jaylin in a hot car to die on a day when temperatures reached the 100-degree mark.

Prosecutors say evidence shows temperatures in the car where Jaylin was found reached as high as 125 degrees.
[...]

The accused had been a member of the MPD's narcotics unit for several years. He faces murder charges in the killing of Wright and manslaughter charges in the killing of the infant.

Defense attorney Brian Denton, however, said Monday that Phillips “didn’t do this thing. ” He called the murders heinous but said “it's not him.”

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/0...-of-wynetta-wright-infant-daughter-84043.html

 

[Dakota]

A D.C. police officer was convicted Thursday of killing his mistress outside a Hillcrest Heights community center, then driving their daughter to a nearby apartment complex and leaving her in a hot SUV to die.

Jurors in Prince George’s County Circuit Court deliberated for less than two hours before convicting Richmond Phillips, 40, of two counts of first-degree murder and related charges.
[...]

As jurors read each successive verdict, some of Wynetta Wright’s relatives sniffled and wiped away tears. Wyvette Wright, her mother, clenched the bench in front of her and nodded, her lips pressed tightly together.

“I am just so happy that he was found guilty on every count because he is a liar and a killer,â€￾ she said in an interview outside the courthouse. She said she wished he could get the death penalty.

“He is a perfect candidate,â€￾ she said.
[...]

The trial was an emotional and sometimes lurid affair. Family members of the victims filled half the courtroom all week, occasionally stepping outside to cry. Phillips’s wife testified for prosecutors, contradicting portions of what her husband told investigators, as did a second mistress of Phillips.

Brian Denton, Phillips’s attorney, said after the verdicts were read that he plans to appeal.

Phillips faces life in prison without parole. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 22 and will remain jailed until then.

Alsobrooks said prosecutors would seek the most severe sentence possible.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...03958c-60bf-11e2-9940-6fc488f3fecd_story.html

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Richmond Phillips was sentencedto two terms of life without parole, plus 20 years.

Phillips was arrested in June 2011 after police found Wynetta Wright fatally shot in a park in Prince George’s County. Their 11-month-old child was left to die in an overheated parked car nearby.

Prosecutors argued that Phillips killed Wright to avoid paying child support and had wanted to talk her out of going forward with a paternity hearing. DNA proved that he was the child’s father.

Ex-Cop Gets Life Sentence In Deaths Of Woman, Baby

A former District of Columbia police officer has been sentenced to life without parole in the deaths of his mistress and their baby daughter.

baltimore.cbslocal.com