Convicted killer Richard Lynn Phillips found guilty in child sex abuse cases
ELLIS COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - An Ellis County jury unanimously decided Richard Lynn Phillips was guilty of continuous sexual abuse of young children, a first-degree felony on March 31, 2022.
Phillips was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
This verdict stems from an investigation conducted by the Ellis County Sheriff's Office, Criminal Investigations Division.
The trial began on Monday, March 28, 2022 with the jury hearing evidence that between the months of March and November 2012, Phillips sexually assaulted two young girls on Bond Street in Red Oak. The children were between the ages of seven and ten years of age at the time of the sexual assault. They did not tell anyone about the sexual abuse until years later. In 2018, one of the children made an outcry regarding the abuse, and the Ellis County Sheriff's Office began a criminal investigation into the sexual assault allegations.
Once the jury heard all of the evidence from the investigation, they returned a guilty verdict in under thirty minutes. As a result, Phillips requested that Judge Bob Carroll decide his punishment.
Judge Carroll heard evidence noting Phillips was convicted of murder in 1978 and was on parole at the time he committed the continuous sexual assault of the girls.
In a news release, the The Ellis County Sheriff's Office commended the victims's bravery. Both are now teenagers who had to testify before the trial court about the abuse committed by Phillips. It wasn't easy for them to relive the horrific acts.