NORRISTOWN >> Thirty-one years after he took part in a robbery and beating that ended with the death of an elderly West Pottsgrove man, a convicted killer serving life imprisonment became eligible for parole because he was 17 at the time of the crime.
Aaron Claude Phillips, now 48, formerly of Upper Dublin, was re-sentenced on Tuesday in Montgomery County Court to 30 years to life in prison on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the July 9, 1986, beating death of 86-year-old Anthony E. McEvoy during a robbery inside McEvoy’s West Pottsgrove home.
Phillips, who was convicted at a nonjury trial in January 1988 of second-degree murder and sentenced to a mandatory life prison term, was granted a re-sentencing hearing in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juveniles. In 2016, the high court said the ruling should be applied retroactively.
On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a separate ruling, said prosecutors bear “the burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the juvenile offender is incapable of rehabilitation.”
Judge Gary S. Silow imposed the new 30-year to-life prison term against Phillips, accepting a sentencing agreement hashed out between prosecutors and Phillips’ lawyers.
Phillips, who has been incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Frackville in Schuylkill County, will receive credit for the time he’s been in prison since Aug. 14, 1986. While Phillips is now eligible for parole he must still appear before the state parole board, which will have the final say as to when Phillips is paroled.
Officials said Phillips, who reports indicated has been a model prisoner, likely will be released from prison within the next several months.
Phillips’ co-defendant, Andrew Dennis Gibbs, then 21, accepted a plea agreement in 1987 under which he pleaded guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and robbery and was sentenced to 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison in connection with the crime.
“This is a difficult case for all parties involved but sometimes you have to make the difficult decisions, you got to do what’s right and we believe firmly that this is what was right in this case,” Assistant District Attorney Kelly Lloyd explained.
Phillips, who at the time of the crime was living in the 300 block of Girard Avenue in Upper Dublin, is the first so-called “juvenile lifer” in Montgomery County to face a re-sentencing hearing. Four other men who were juveniles at the time they committed murders in West Pottsgrove and Norristown between 1986 and 1999 currently have their cases under review.
During a hearing punctuated by raw emotion, several of McEvoy’s survivors, including two granddaughters, spoke eloquently in court about their loss.
McEvoy, the last surviving charter member of the Stowe Oldtimers Baseball Association, suffered internal injuries and a broken thigh bone after he was thrown to the kitchen floor during the robbery that netted about $60 and died 18 days after the beating. His wife, Martha, who suffered from cancer, also was in the Glasgow Street home at the time, and she died “of a broken heart,” several weeks after the death of her husband, family members testified.
“It breaks my heart to know their last moments on earth were that horrific,” granddaughter Tracy McEvoy Kilmer testified as she faced Phillips and held $60 in her hand. “Sixty-dollars, that was the value of his life that night.”
Silow said he was “deeply touched” by the testimony of McEvoy’s family.
“You brought home the tragedy of what occurred that night,” Silow said.
McEvoy’s relatives initially appeared reluctant to accept the idea of parole for Phillips, explaining Phillips never reached out to the family to say he was sorry. Phillips indicated he wanted to meet privately with McEvoy’s family to express his remorse and court officials arranged for that meeting to occur, under heavy guard by sheriff’s deputies, behind the courtroom, out of public view.
“In speaking with them after the fact, I think it was really important for them to get closure, to get perspective, to be able to talk to the defendant and ask him about how he’s been rehabilitated and about what his plan is. To actually be able to communicate with the defendant, I think, was very important to them and very impactful in the process of dealing with this,” Lloyd said.
Phillips testified he previously wrote a letter of apology to the McEvoy family but that prison regulations prohibited inmates from contacting victims’ families. Phillips, who was represented by defense lawyer Marsha Levick, welcomed the chance to meet privately with McEvoy’s family.
“I’m truly, truly sorry for the harm that I’ve done,” Phillips testified in open court, his voice quivering with emotion at times. “I will never, ever be free from the harm that I caused. I’m not one who blames my actions on youthfulness. I blame myself. No one can absolve me of that. That’s something that I will take to my grave.”
Phillips explained if he’s granted freedom he would “never stop trying” to make reparations for the harm he caused and promised to work hard to be a contributing member of society.
Phillips’ wife and several friends testified he has their support.
Lloyd said prosecutors relied on presumptive sentencing ranges, which were developed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, to fashion the 30-year to life sentence. Those sentencing ranges are based on a juvenile offender’s age and the degree of murder of which they are convicted.
First Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann Jr. said prosecutors also wanted to ensure that if Phillips is released that he will still be supervised by state parole officials for the rest of his life.
“That’s important to us. The one thing we wanted to make sure, for public safety purposes, was that there was parole for life so that he’s monitored and he’s not walking around on the streets with no one paying attention to what he’s doing,” McCann said.
McCann said prosecutors determined, after reviewing the Supreme Court rulings, “there was really no ability for us to advocate for a life without parole sentence in this case and in the interest of balancing public safety and fairness this was an appropriate outcome.”
