Phillips gets 30 years to life for murder

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Chad Phillips received life in prison, but could be freed in 30 years, while Chris McMillen lost his life when Phillips gunned him down in a Fox Road apartment. It’s not a trade-off that suits McMillen’s family — especially his father, Danny.

“I would like you to be hanged by the highest tree in Van Wert,” Danny McMillen told Phillips during an emotional statement he made prior to sentencing.

The victim’s father and his brothers, Josh and Casey McMillen, talked about the impact of the loss of their son and brother as part of statements made Thursday in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court.

“It hurts so bad knowing there’s nothing I can do to bring him back,” Danny McMillen said. “It’s the most helpless feeling I have ever had in my whole life.”

Phillips also made an emotional statement to the court, saying he was sorry to the victim’s family for killing the 24-year-old McMillen.

“Words can’t express the remorse I feel for what I did,” Phillips said. “I hope one day you will find it possible to forgive me; regardless, I will have to live knowing that I took someone else’s son for the rest of my life.”

Although there were tears in Phillips’ eyes as he read his statement, they didn’t impress Josh McMillen, who compared them with the defendant’s smile to his family when he first was brought into the courtroom.

“That’s sad to see,” the victim’s brother told Phillips. “Selfish, foolish, jealous, angry, cowardly … those are just some of the adjectives that come to mind.”

Judge Steele’s sentence also didn’t likely please Phillips’ family, who sought the minimum sentence: life in prison, with the possibility of parole in 20 years.

“Chad has a severe alcohol problem,” said defense attorney Leif Christman as a way of explaining Phillips’ action. “He was under the influence of alcohol heavily when he committed this action.”

The defendant had pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated murder during a hearing held November 10. In exchange for his plea, the prosecution agreed to dismiss counts of attempted murder, aggravated burglary and felonious assault, as well as firearms specifications accompanying each charge that could have each added a mandatory three years in prison served consecutively to other sentences.

The shooting on May 12 was over a woman, with Phillips allegedly shouting “If I can’t have her, no one will,” after he broke down the door of the apartment where Chris McMillen was at and shot the victim several times.

McMillen was later life-flighted to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind., after local medical personnel initiated treatment, and he died there early the next morning.

In sentencing Phillips, Judge Charles D. Steele had four options: life in prison without parole or with the possibility of parole after 20, 25, or 30 years, and decided on allowing Phillips, who will be 62 at the time, the possibility of seeking parole after 30 years.

The McMillen family will no doubt oppose any request for parole when that time comes, given their insistence throughout the case that Phillips be given the death penalty for killing Chris McMillen.

Members of both the Phillips and McMillen families were in tears during Thursday’s sentencing hearing, which was conducted under strict security, but the McMillens sat in stony silence when the verdict was read.

“I hope he never has a day of freedom,” Danny McMillen said after the verdict was read.