Friday, July 24, 2015
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina woman was sentenced to life in prison Thursday, more than two years after prosecutors say she hired a teen to kill a man, and he killed the wrong man by mistake.
A judge sentenced Karlita Desean Phillips of Greenwood after a jury found her guilty of accessory before the fact of murder and soliciting a minor to commit a felony, according to prosecutor David Stumbo.
Authorities have said that Phillips, 41, hired a 17-year-old to kill her estranged husband in March 2013, but the teen killed her husband's brother, 31-year-old Jamil Phillips, by mistake.
Jamil Phillips was ambushed as he slid his key into the door of his home in Abbeville, investigators say
Stumbo said Karlita Phillips was motivated in part by life-insurance payouts due to her at her husband's death. Dale Phillips Jr. had a life-insurance policy through work that would have paid Karlita Phillips $500,000 at his death, prosecutors said.