ad info




CNN.com
 MAIN PAGE
 WORLD
 ASIANOW
 U.S.
 LOCAL
 POLITICS
 WEATHER
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 TECHNOLOGY
 NATURE
 ENTERTAINMENT
 BOOKS
 TRAVEL
 FOOD
 HEALTH
 STYLE
 IN-DEPTH

 Headline News brief
 daily almanac
 CNN networks
 CNN programs
 on-air transcripts
 news quiz

  CNN WEB SITES:
CNN Websites
 TIME INC. SITES:
 MORE SERVICES:
 video on demand
 video archive
 audio on demand
 news email services
 free email accounts
 desktop headlines
 pointcast
 pagenet

 DISCUSSION:
 message boards
 chat
 feedback

 SITE GUIDES:
 help
 contents
 search

 FASTER ACCESS:
 europe
 japan

 WEB SERVICES:
US

Florida teen guilty of murdering 8-year-old neighbor

Phillips

iconVIDEO
CNN's Susan Candiotti provides an overview of the case
Real 28K 80K
Windows Media 28K 80K
icon  MESSAGE BOARD:
Crime and Punsihment
 

July 8, 1999
Web posted at: 2:20 p.m. EDT (1820 GMT)

BARTOW, Florida (CNN) -- It took a Florida jury about two hours to find a 15-year-old boy guilty of murdering his 8-year-old neighbor - then stuffing her body under his bed. The jury ignored the defense attorney's plea to find the teen guilty of manslaughter instead.

"We're not here to act out some sort of vengeance," said defense attorney Richard Nichols during his closing argument, shortly before the jury got the case around midday Thursday.

A day earlier, in opening statements, Nichols said there was no dispute that Joshua Phillips killed Maddie Clifton. But, he argued that Phillips was not guilty of premeditated murder as prosecutors claimed.

"Because of an act that began as an accident and deteriorated through panic that bordered on madness, he engaged in a monstrous act," Nichols said.

Prosecutor Harry Shorstein said the boy was guilty of "three vicious attacks" in which he hit the girl with a baseball bat, cut her throat and then repeatedly stabbed her before hiding her body beneath his water bed in his parents' Jacksonville, Florida, home on November 3, 1998.

Phillips -- who was 14 at the time of the alleged killing -- will not face the death penalty. Under Florida law, the death penalty cannot be imposed on anyone under the age of 16.

The first-degree murder conviction could bring a maximum life sentence.

By admitting Phillips' role in the killing, defense attorneys had hoped that jurors would accept a manslaughter charge that carries a maximum 15-year sentence.



RELATED STORIES:
Prosecution rests in trial of teen accused of killing neighbor girl
July 7, 1999
Jury selected for teen accused of killing neighbor child
July 6, 1999
Florida boy charged as adult in neighbor's murder
November 19, 1998
Florida to try 14-year-old as adult in killing of playmate
November 16, 1998
Missing girl's body found under neighbor's bed
November 10, 1998

RELATED SITES:
The Jimmy Ryce Center for the Victims of Predatory Abduction
  • Maddie Clifton
Maddie Clifton Memorial
Keep Maddie's Memory Alive!
wjxt.com - Remembering Maddie
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

 LATEST HEADLINES:
SEARCH CNN.com
Enter keyword(s)   go    help

Back to the top   © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.