YOUNGSTOWN Teen gets 15 years to life for murder

The judge denied a defense request for voluntary manslaughter as an option.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A jury's verdict resulted in Dustin Phipps' being sent to prison for 18 years to life.
Phipps, 18, of Boardman, was convicted Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court of murder and abusing a corpse. Judge Charles J. Bannon sentenced him this morning.
The murder conviction carries a mandatory penalty of 15 years to life in prison. Because the jury also convicted Phipps of using a firearm to commit the crime, he faces an additional mandatory three-year sentence. By law, those sentences must be consecutive.
Phipps also got 11 months in prison for abuse of a corpse, which will run concurrently with the other sentences.
Will appeal
Defense attorney Mark Lavelle said he will appeal the sentence and verdicts. Because of the pending appeal, Lavelle advised Phipps to not comment during the sentencing hearing.
Authorities said Phipps shot 18-year-old Adam T. Dixon in the head three times with a .22-caliber rifle Feb. 28, 2002, at an apartment on West Boston Avenue. After the first shot, which was from about 4 feet away, Phipps stood over Dixon, taunted him, and shot him twice more at point-blank range.
"There could be no doubt in anyone's mind that he meant to kill Adam Dixon," Assistant Prosecutor Robert Andrews told jurors in his closing argument.
Jurors deliberated just more than two hours before returning with the verdicts.
Lavelle had said he would put Phipps on the witness stand to testify on his own behalf, but changed his mind at the last minute and decided against it. Lavelle also declined to offer a summation to jurors.
Lavelle had argued that the jury should be allowed to consider voluntary manslaughter as an option during its deliberation. He admitted that Phipps shot Dixon, but said it was in a sudden fit of passion or rage brought on by the victim. Judge Bannon denied the request.
A conviction for voluntary manslaughter would have carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Witnesses testified Tuesday that Phipps, who was 16 at the time, shot Dixon after a wrestling match between Dixon and another teenager, Michael Stanton, had gotten out of hand.
Phipps then had Stanton help him carry Dixon's body to his car, authorities said. They put the body in the Mahoning River, where it was found the next day near the waste treatment plant in Lowellville, authorities said.
Phipps was originally charged as a juvenile, but was bound over to common pleas court for trial as an adult. Stanton was 17 at the time and is charged in juvenile court with abuse of a corpse.
bjackson@vindy.com