UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (WUSA)--- A Washington, D.C. police officer was found guilty Thursday in the 2011 murders of his girlfriend and their daughter. Richmond Phillips, who is married, will be sentenced in March for the murder of 20-year-old Wynetta Wright, a girlfriend who was taking him to court to prove paternity of her daughter, 11-month-old Jaylin Wright, the first step in getting Phillips to pay child support.
Just prior to that hearing in May of 2011, Wright and Phillips met at a Prince Georges County park where, jurors concluded, he killed her, left her body in the woods, and drove away in her car, which was also inhabited by their daughter Jaylin.
Phillips abandoned the car with Jaylin inside in sweltering heat. She was found dead in that car days later.
"I think this was a very significant case for us on a number of levels, and I think, most especially, because it was a child. All of these cases are significant to us but there is something unspeakable, not only the fact that this infant died, but also how she died.
"That a sworn officer was capable of killing a child in this manner is just unbelievable and it was his own child. So, these facts were unusual and, in my mind, they were both babies. Wynetta Wright was barely 19 when he met. This baby was six days shy of her first birthday so these were both children as far as I'm concerned and it was just unbelievable," said Prince Georges County States Attorney Angela Alsobrooks, who personally prosecuted the case.
"I will sleep much better tonight, much better. I tell you, these weeks, these holidays, this family suffered and I met with them prior to the holidays and they said we can't think, we can't do anything, and I promised them that I would not be enjoying the holidays either until we brought justice to them and tonight we have, so I'll sleep much better," Alsobrooks told WUSA-9.
