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N.Y. cop killer appeals murder conviction
By Ben Dobbin
Associated Press
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A former escaped inmate who killed a New York state trooper and wounded two others while on the run in 2006 cannot withdraw his guilty pleas and stand trial, an appeals court ruled Friday.
Ralph “Bucky” Phillips, who in November 2006 told a judge he was “guilty as hell” of murder and a litany of other charges, argued in an appeal last month that he entered the pleas only because he got bad advice from a court-appointed lawyer. The 46-year-old is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
In a unanimous decision Friday afternoon, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court determined that Phillips voluntarily admitted his intention to kill or wound state troopers staking out his former girlfriend’s house in rural Chautauqua County in western New York.
“He knew that the police had set up surveillance at the location ... that the weapon he used was ‘very powerful’ and could inflict a fatal wound, and that he shot the two men,” the judges wrote.
“We therefore conclude that the plea ... is factually sufficient.”
Calls to attorney Linda Campbell, who argued Phillips’ appeal, were not immediately returned.
A career criminal, Phillips escaped from a jail near Buffalo in April 2006, using an industrial can opener to cut a hole in a kitchen ceiling. While on the run, he was stopped in a stolen car in June and opened fire on Trooper Sean Brown, who was wounded in the abdomen but survived.
That August, he shot troopers Joseph Longobardo and Donald Baker Jr. with a high-powered rifle as they crouched in woods near his former girlfriend’s home. Longobardo died three days later, while Baker, shot through the torso, needed three months of hospitalization.
Phillips was finally captured in September 2006, just across the state line in Pennsylvania, after one of the largest manhunts in New York history.
Phillips contends he pleaded guilty because his trial lawyer falsely told him that if he didn’t, his former girlfriend and their daughter could be imprisoned as accessories. The judges countered that Phillips “stated at the time of the plea that he was satisfied with the services of his attorney.”
Since arriving at a remote prison near the Canadian border in early 2007, Phillips has faced 11 charges of inmate misconduct, including mailing a letter asking someone to smuggle in unspecified explosive devices, the state Department of Corrections said. He is being held in a special prison housing unit through next June.