2 defendants enter pleas in 2018 slayings

Ken de la Bastide, The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Ind.
·2 min read

Aug. 6—ANDERSON — Two more defendants in the 2018 killings of David L. Phillips II and Trinity Parker have reached plea agreements with the state.

David Roberts, 40, entered a plea of guilty to a Level 2 felony charge of voluntary manslaughter and Brittany Vontress-Cox, 33, pleaded guilty to a Level 3 felony charge of aiding kidnapping with a deadly weapon Friday in Madison Circuit Court Division 6.

Judge Mark Dudley set sentencing for both Roberts and Vontress-Cox for Aug. 27.

Under terms of the two plea agreements, if accepted by Judge Dudley, Roberts will be sentenced to 20 years in prison; Vontress-Cox will receive up to a maximum nine-year sentence.

Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Kopp said Roberts was contacted by Daniel Jones in July 2018 and offered a school bus as a place to hide out.

Roberts was wanted on a warrant at the time.

Roberts asked if Parker could hang out with him, and Jones said Parker was reportedly a "snitch."

Kopp said Jones and Jonathan Kirkle threatened Roberts with a gun and was told he had a choice between his life and Parker's.

Roberts contacted Parker and the three men picked her up at a motel in Anderson. After driving around for several hours, they took Parker to an abandoned house in Grant County.

Kopp said it was there that Jones shot Parker in the head twice.

Roberts was originally charged with murder, but the state agreed to the plea on the voluntary manslaughter charge because he was threatened with a gun.

Kopp said Vontress-Cox drove Phillips, Zirkle and Jones to the Rangeline Nature Preserve in July 2018. It was there that Jones shot Phillips.

"She provided the transportation," Kopp said. "She didn't know Phillips was going to be killed."

Jones entered a plea of guilty to two counts of murder and was sentenced by Dudley to 120 years in prison. Zirkle was found guilty of Level 1 felony aiding, inducing or causing murder in the shooting death.

He was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

A fifth defendant, Taylor Wheeler, charged with murder, is awaiting the setting of a trial date in Madison Circuit Court Division 6 on Aug. 27.

Phillips' decomposed body was found in 2018 at the Rangeline Nature Preserve by Madison County Sheriff's Department detectives. The 35-year-old Anderson man had been shot twice in the head with a .22-caliber handgun.

Two days later, Jones, who was already in custody at the Madison County Jail on an unrelated weapons charge, led investigators to an abandoned house just across the Grant County line where Parker's badly decomposed body was found.

Follow Ken de la Bastide on Twitter @KendelaBastide, or call 765-640-4863.

Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting

Recommended Stories

  • Whale Rescued From Fishing Net Near Vancouver Island

    Fisheries and Oceans Canada released footage on August 4 showing a grey whale being freed from netting after a four-day rescue operation near Vancouver Island.The whale was freed on July 31 near Brooks Peninsula, according to a Global News report, which cited an official from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.“After 4 days on the water, employing drones, satellite tags and a fair amount of elbow grease, our Marine Mammal Rescue Team and our Conservation and Protection Whale Protection Unit in BC successfully freed a grey whale who had become entangled in over 18 metres of active fishing gear,” Fisheries and Oceans Canada said on Facebook. Credit: Fisheries and Oceans Canada via Storyful

  • Boise Police: Man arrested after wielding broken pool cue, chasing and threatening people

    The 57-year-old suspect was charged with four felonies and three misdemeanors on Thursday.

  • Suspected dynamite found in pickup after man fled arrest, Cass County Sheriff says

    The explosives were detonated by authorities at the scene because they were too dangerous to transport, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office said.

  • Former executive assistant files criminal complaint against Cuomo

    The staffer told investigators Cuomo reached under her blouse and groped her, a charge he denies.

  • Arrest made in connection to brutal beating of woman by mob of ATV, dirt bike riders: Police

    A woman has been arrested in connection to the brutal beating of another woman who was attacked by a mob of ATV riders and dirt bikers in Providence, Rhode Island, police said in a statement Thursday. On Thursday evening, Providence Police detectives apprehended Shyanne Boisvert, 24, of North Providence, "related to the assault that occurred on Valley Street on August 3," the police department said. Providence Police were notified of Boisvert's whereabouts by the Cranston Police Department, when she reported to their station regarding an unrelated matter, they said.

  • Yeonmi Park says she was robbed by three women, bystanders stopped her from calling police

    North Korean defector Yeonmi Park says she failed to call for help while being robbed in Chicago last year as bystanders barred her because it would be “racist.” What happened: Park, 27, recalled the incident in a new interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, which tackled her experiences as a child in North Korea and as a defector in the U.S. She said it occurred during lootings across the city last summer. Park was out with her baby and a nanny when three Black women allegedly robbed her near Saks Fifth Avenue on Michigan Avenue.

  • Family of missing Pleasanton runner devastated by his death

    "Hug your families because you never know what is going to happen in the next moment." The family of a runner who went missing in Pleasanton thanked the community for their support after a body matching his description was found.

  • Police say missing runner may have suffered injury, heat stress

    The autopsy results for the body believed to be missing Pleasanton runner Philip Kreycik are expected in the next few days.

  • Indiana man who survived attempted lynching charged for fighting back

    A Black man in Indiana who was almost lynched by a mob of white men in the woods is now […] The post Indiana man who survived attempted lynching charged for fighting back appeared first on TheGrio.

  • Oregon High School Janitor Stockpiled Weapons for Mass Shooting: Cops

    Medford Police Department/South Medford High SchoolA janitor at an Oregon high school was prepared to gun down students and teachers at the school where he worked and made detailed plans for the shooting spree, local police said Thursday. Thankfully, he turned himself in first, repentant. Kristopher Clay, the 24-year-old janitor for South Medford High School, surrendered to the Medford police department on July 20, allegedly confessing to officers he had “homicidal thoughts.” He remained in poli

  • Pam Hupp Is Not Your Typical Serial Killer––And Wow, It’s A Lot

    Pam Hupp had a normal childhood. She grew up in Dellwood, Missouri, firmly entrenched in the middle-class white Catholic suburbs: schoolteacher mom, union-man dad, third of three kids, according to Jeannette Cooperman. And she grew up to become an image of the white, suburban, middle-class mom you’d expect: frowsy blonde hair, red turtleneck, penny-pinching. But []

  • Murder conviction upheld for ex-Dallas police officer who shot and killed Botham Jean in his home

    Amber Guyger was convicted of murder after she mistakenly entered Botham Jean's apartment believing it was her own, and shot and killed him in 2018.

  • Sitting Down With the Man Who Shattered My Life Helped Me Put the Pieces Back Together

    “For years I thought of him as ‘my rapist.' Now I refer to him as ‘my friend.’"

  • 1966 death of heiress' employee under renewed scrutiny

    When Doris Duke, a fabulously wealthy tobacco and power company heiress, ran over and killed a longtime employee and confidant at her Newport, Rhode Island, mansion in 1966, police took her at her word that it was an accident. Bob Walker, a Marine Corps veteran, says he was there the day Duke killed 42-year-old Eduardo Tirella, driving into him twice with a 2-ton station wagon as he screamed below it. Peter Lance, an author and journalist whose meticulously researched book, “Homicide at Rough Point,” investigated the killing and recently interviewed Walker, who was 13 years old in 1966.

  • Keys tourists fight over woman in a wheelbarrow — then someone bit off a piece of ear

    A bunch of friends were on vacation this week in the Florida Keys. But during an early morning argument at a fancy resort just outside of Key West city limits, the party apparently went south.

  • Gang Members Established ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Atlanta, Killed Eight-Year-Old Girl during Police Protest

    Members of the Bloods street gang established a perimeter around the Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was killed, establishing an 'autonomous zone'.

  • Arizona lawmaker arrested, accused of sexual conduct with a minor in 2019

    Phoenix police would only say that they have developed "a probable cause" case against state Sen. Otoniel “Tony” Navarrete.

  • Officer hit by his own stun gun shoots illegal dumping suspect, Missouri police say

    The suspect was transported to the hospital.

  • Warden at jail holding Ghislaine Maxwell charged with murder

    The associate warden at a federal jail in New York City where singer R. Kelly and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell are being held was arrested and charged Monday in connection to the shooting death of her husband.

  • Appeals court upholds murder conviction of ex-Dallas officer

    A Texas appeals court on Thursday upheld the murder conviction of a former Dallas police officer who was sentenced to prison for fatally shooting her neighbor in his home. A panel of three state judges ruled that a Dallas County jury had sufficient evidence to convict Amber Guyger of murder in the 2018 shooting of Botham Jean. The decision by the 5th Texas Court of Appeals in Dallas means Guyger, who turns 33 on Monday, will continue to serve her 10-year prison sentence and largely dashes her hopes of having the 2019 conviction overturned.