Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Crack dealer killed on gang orders, jury told

Two teens shot a crack cocaine supplier at point blank range in broad daylight while two young children played nearby, a jury was told on Thursday.

Crown attorney Susan Baragar, during her opening statement to the jury at the beginning of a first-degree murder trial, said the shots left Thomas Roy Phillips, 38, dead in the driver's seat of his Jeep Grand Cherokee on March 26, 2007.

"(The two teens) both reached into the passenger window, both had guns, and almost simultaneously shot Thomas Phillips, twice in the head and once in the chest," Baragar said.

"(Phillips) immediately slumped in the drivers' seat and died shortly after."

The two teens have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Baragar told the jury that during the trial they would hear from several witnesses in person, except for one.

She said the evidence of a then-nine-year-old girl, who was playing with her younger sister on the Magnus Avenue lawn near where Phillips was shot, would come from her videotaped conversation with police a day after the shooting because "children tend to forget things faster than adults".

As well, the Crown said the jury would hear from a former member of the Indian Posse street gang who was expected to say Phillips was shot on orders from a high ranking member of the gang.

"I expect you will be convinced that (the teens) planned the killing of Thomas Phillips and then deliberately followed through with their plan, thus committing first degree murder," she said.

But Baragar warned the jury that anything she was telling them wasn't evidence, but she was telling it to them so they could better understand the evidence as it came out.

The trial continues today.

 

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 3, 2010 A11

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