Welcome back to my blog! This week I will be talking about the case of Josh Phillips who was convicted of murdering Maddie Clifton.

Eight-year-old Maddie Clifton was reported missing  by her mother on November 3rd, 1998 from their Lakewood neighborhood in Jacksonville, FL. She was reported missing after she had gone outside to play and disappeared.It was later determined that the murderer was Joshua Phillips, a neighbor who lived across the road from Maddie and her family.

Joshua Clifton was born on March 17, 1984 to Steve and Melissa Phillips. Steve Phillips was a drug addict and alcoholic who was violent towards his wife Melissa and son Joshua. According to Phillips, on November 3rd, 1998, Maddie came to his house and asked him if he wanted to come outside and play baseball. As the two were playing, Phillips accidentally threw the ball at her and hit her eye causing her to cry, scream, and bleed. Phillips knew that his dad would be home soon and knew that he would get mad so he panicked. Phillips hit Maddie again with the ball to stop her from screaming and hid her under his bed. He then discovered that Maddie was still alive and moaning under his bed so he removed the mattress, cut her throat, and stabbed her in the chest seven times with a knife, killing her.

Clifton’s disappearance was reported around 5:00 pm that day. Police and other volunteers, including Phillips participated in the search of Maddie’s body for six days. On November 10, Melissa, Phillips’ mom, went inside her son’s room and discovered Maddie’s body under the bed. She immediately went to the police to report the incident and Phillips was arrested at his school. Phillips confessed to the murder within hours of his arrest.

According to the autopsy, there was no evidence that showed that Maddie had been struck in the eye  with a baseball. The evidence didn’t show any evidence of sexual assault either. Although he was only 14 at the time, Josh Phillips was tried as an adult. Phillips’ lawyer, Richard Nichols, did not call a single witness for the defense, a move that the prosecutors found surprising and risky. Nichols’ strategy was to base the defense on a closing arguments to the jurors where he stated that Clifton’ death began as an accident, escalated to panic that bordered on madness. Nichols also didn’t let Phillips to testify  which means that he never had the opportunity to speak during his own trial. Phillips said that Nichols never attempted to question him about the murder and instead played chess with him during the visits.

Jurors convicted Josh Phillips of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Source:https://filmdaily.co/news/joshua-phillips/