Monster: Under The Bed

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Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell stories of real crimes with real

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victims whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering how is this even real?

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I use my experiences in law enforcement, corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal

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justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil, many feel they are unspeakable.

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Warning, unspeakable is intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your

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girl. Listing discretion is advised. Hey y'all, Kelly Jennings here back for another episode of Unspeakable.

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How's it going? I hope you've had a wonderful week so far. You're midway and you're getting

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to listen to this episode and I think I have a pretty good one for you today. Before I start though,

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let me give you some shout outs because I've got a whole bunch of new people that are joining

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in on my Patreon and I need to give them a shout out. And I'm going to start with some local people.

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We've got some people from denim springs and some walker and some Hammond. I've got Miss Kayla Mackie,

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Miss Michelle. Now, I don't want to mispronounce this. Is it Siampa? Siampa? I hope I haven't screwed that up,

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but you know, girl, I'm a little country bumping up here. You got to tell me message me on Facebook and

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tell me if I screwed that up. But I'm so glad to have y'all along with Miss Caitlin Williams.

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And then this one I just got so tickled with her name is Miss Nina Button and I thought, oh my god,

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her name is just so cute. And then I saw her email and I'm not going to give you her full email,

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but I just want you to know it starts out with cute as a get it because her last name is Button.

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That's cute. Hey Miss Nina, thank you so much. And I got tickled by that one. Marvie Borer. Hi,

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Marvie. Thank you so much for joining in on my Patreon and Shari Dufrein. Hello, hello, hello. And then

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hot damn Roxanne. I've got Roxanne Richardson. I think Roxanne is the most legit name.

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How you doing Roxanne? Thank you so much. Demi Smith and last but not least just for today is going to be

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Miss Jackie Williams. And I'm super proud to have you Miss Jackie. Thank you for joining. I actually

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taught Miss Jackie's daughter and she's about to graduate college now and is doing great things

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and she's in the band and at her college and just I'm watching her grow and prosper and I really

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appreciate that you would continue to support me in my endeavor here on my podcast. But thank you

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so much everyone. Hey, if you want to join Patreon, y'all it's on Facebook. I'm not going to sit here

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and explain it all to you, but you can go look, find me a unspeakable true crime podcast by Kelly

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Jennings and join in. Also big news. I am transferring over my merch website. So beyond the lookout,

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I have a brand new website coming out with a ton of new stuff on there. Way more options than I had

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before. So I'm in the process of transferring that over. So you might kind of see two ways to

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purchase for right now, but hopefully in the next week or so it'll be completely transferred over.

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I have a link that I posted last week that you can go see on my Facebook, but just stay tuned,

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tons new stuff because y'all speak and I listen and I want y'all to be able to go see all the cool

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stuff that I got. But we're going to go and get started. We're going to start with this episode that

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I'm calling Monster Under the Bed. All right. So this episode today takes place back in 1999. So we're

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going back just a little bit, but while this is an older case, it's still one that caught me by a

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surprise when I first learned of it. I literally was okay, I don't go to the gym all the time. I'm not

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even going to pretend I do, but I did go like a few times, but I get really bored. So I have to find

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something to do. So I read or I'll watch stuff, you know, and it's usually true crime that I'm reading

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or baseball or football or something, but I read about this case in the gym and I literally stopped

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and like, huh, thought about it for a minute because I was so like tripped out by this one. So it interested

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me so much that I say, ooh, I got to tell my people about this one. So what's so surprising about this

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case is that it can everyone involved is children. There's no adults. And when I tell you about this

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crime, you'd be like, damn, kids, kids did this. And, you know, they're just rather young,

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considering the chain of events that take place and it's just kind of shocking. So this one's

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going to be out of Jacksonville, Florida. And I don't know why, but everything crazy seems to happen

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in Florida. But the Clifton family, they're your average middle class family living a normal life.

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They live in a normal neighborhood. And mom's name is Sheila, dad's name is Steve. And they were the

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proud parents of two girls. One of their daughters was Maddie. She was eight years old. And then she

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had an older sister named Jesse. Now Maddie was best described as, and I know we always say this, a

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typical little girl. But in that, then that tell you what we're saying. This was not in a

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klektic child or one that was involved in risky behavior. She was your normal every day eight,

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eight year old little girl. She played the piano and she loved basketball. All right. And if you

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look at her picture, which you know me, and I'm going to post pictures of her, but she has her little

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face dotted with freckles and she has brown straight hair. And at the age she's at, and I mean,

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this with absolute love, you can tell that Maddie was still growing into her features. Okay. And I have a

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child, roughly this age, and it's kind of cute because they still have their little baby face,

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but she's got her big adult teeth in the front. And she's still just, she's starting to kind of come

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into her own. And you know, in her mouth, she still had some baby teeth, but those adult teeth were

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coming in. Her little ears kind of stick out a little bit in her little school pictures, but she

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is just a precious little thing. And according to her family, they said Maddie was a feisty girl.

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All right. And her thing was that she always pulled for the underdog. And I feel that in my soul,

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sweet Maddie, I understand that it didn't matter if she was watching a movie or real life. She always

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wanted the underdog to get a fair, you know, a fair try things. And she was very attuned to people

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and hated for them to feel lonely or isolated. So she would go out of her way to speak to people

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that maybe everyone else might overlook. And I just, I so identify with that. I try to make a point

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that, you know, we have special needs kids where I teach and I'll go in in the mornings and say hello

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to those babies because sometimes they do get forgotten, you know, they don't run with a regular crowd.

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And the kids that are just quiet in class and they don't speak a lot. And you can tell that they're

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not necessarily the big popular crowd kids. I always want to make sure that everyone feels seen

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and loved. And that was Maddie's thing. She loved to make sure people felt known and that they were

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noticed. So Maddie and Jesse, her sister were really close and they loved each other. They even

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called each other best friends according to some of the reports that are read. And I think that's

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pretty precious. So much like I remember my childhood being Maddie was raised at a time when parents

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allowed their children to roam free. Okay, remember, this is the 90s. And so when this case took place,

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I was a little older than Maddie. I was about 15. But I can remember those days vividly of riding

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bikes until the lights came on. And we were literally told to go outside and go play, right? Go

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outside and play. We had to leave our parents alone. And like, I mean, all day, like back kids catch you

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on the flip, you know, we had to be gone. And the only reason we ever went inside, I remember being

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young was that if we had to use the bathroom or we were allowed to grab popsicles so we could run

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inside and grab popsicles other than that, we knew our ass is better be outside playing and Maddie's

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life was no different. So, you know, back then times were just different. It was not like the 20,

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you know, 2020s that were in right now. They just were, we were coming to the end of that

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roam free and play hard era, if you know what I mean. And but it was still there. It was kind of the

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end of it. And things like kidnappings and trafficking and evil and all that, they were real.

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But they just again, they were not promoted and advertised. And I don't know that parents really,

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you know, felt like we had to tell our kids those things because they were scary back then. I mean,

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hell today now we have to do lockdown drills for active shooters in schools. We are having to

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expose our kids to so much because so much keeps happening. Well, as it normally would be, Maddie

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was told to go play outside and this is going to be November 3rd, 1998 and she did just that. She

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went outside to play and she had friends in the neighborhood that she would go visit just like,

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we all did right go knock on doors and see who can come outside and play. And one of those friends

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that she had made was named Joshua Phillips. Now a little bit about Josh, Josh was born March 17th

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in 1984 and he was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Shout out Pennsylvania if if anyone there is

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listening to me. But in the early 90s, his family would move from Pennsylvania to Florida and as

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fate would have it, they would settle into a home across the street from Maddie Clifton and her family.

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Josh was a few years older though. Josh was 14 and he was in ninth grade. He was a little awkward,

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all right? And he was kind of a loner most of the time. But Maddie didn't care, you know, Maddie liked

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the underdog and that underdogness if that's even a word didn't bother her. They had played before in

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the neighborhood and on this day, Maddie was hitting golf balls up and down the street. She had a

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little golf club and she was just kind of smacking them around. And after she had lost a bunch of them,

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right, from them going everywhere, she headed home to round up some more golf balls to hit.

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So as the day kind of progressed, Maddie eventually made her way across the street to see if Josh,

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her neighbor wanted to play with her. And so she went to his house and said, hey, how about we go,

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we go hit a baseball or something? You want to come outside and hit a baseball? So they did. They

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went outside to play. Well, later that afternoon, Maddie's mom returned home from running errands and

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had, you know, things that she had to do was actually election day and she came home from voting.

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When Maddie popped in the house and she was told, Maddie, make sure you're home for supper. And she

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said, Mama, I promise I'll be right in for supper. Is this not sounding a little bit like, wait a minute,

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in that the exact thing you said last episode that we'd covered? Yep. Sounds familiar, huh?

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But as the day dwindled to a close, Maddie never returned to the house. So her family began looking for

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her like families would do. They called out to her. They went up and down the street, but Maddie never came

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home. So eventually, her mom would go out into the neighborhood. She looked around for her. She asked

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if neighbors had seen her. She even went knocking on the doors, but no one had seen Maddie. And when they

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questioned her little sister, Jessie, or excuse me, her bigger sister, Jessie, she said she hadn't

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seen her and she hadn't been with her for a while. So she didn't know where she was. They'd been doing

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their own things and separated shortly thereafter. Mom starts to panic and says, that's it. I'm calling

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911. I got to make a report. Maddie's gone. We can't find her. So that night, the Clifton's and

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their neighbors, lots of people came out and they started searching with flashlights. And among those

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that were searching were Maddie's friends in the neighborhood. Josh, her friend across the street was

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looking for his parents were there. Maddie's parents, all the neighbors are out and they cannot find

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her. You know, it was almost like, hopefully she had fallen off her bike or something had gotten hurt,

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but she was nowhere, like nowhere. One day passed and Maddie never came home. Then three days

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went by and still no Maddie. She's eight years old, y'all. Then five days goes by. Now it's getting,

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it's getting kind of stressful. You know what I mean? How long can a child survive if they're injured or

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if they're in a position that they can't call for help? I mean five days and I'm thinking no food or

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water. If they're injured or or something terrible has happened and there's still no sign of Maddie.

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She's literally nowhere. Over a total of seven days, thousands of volunteers,

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frantically looked for Maddie. People literally came together because as you can imagine, the more time

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that passed, the more grim this outlook was and people knew it. It's a little girl. Here's a stat

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for you too to kind of follow up on that. According to the National Center for Missing and

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Exploited Children's Statistics, the number of children abducted by strangers every year is just

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below 5,000. So if this was an abduction, she would have fallen into that 5,000 kids. That's a lot of kids,

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though. You know, 5,000 kids. I mean, that's like double of 5A class high school, some of the high schools

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around here, all every kid at the school being abducted and of non-family abduction cases,

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usually around 20% are not found alive. That's scary because no one in Maddie's family had a

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vendetta or would have benefited by taking Maddie. So if she was taken, it must have been a stranger.

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So typically the first contact between a perpetrator and a victim is usually within a quarter

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mile of a child's home. That's an important stat to know also just based on all the other stuff I've

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told you about like sex offenders. If most perpetrators that take children are within a quarter mile

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of the home, that means somebody's watching your kids if they abduct them. And this is apparent in

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80% of stranger abductions, 80% of the time it's within a quarter mile of the home that the perpetrator

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takes the child. And the majority of abducted victims by strangers are female.

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So these are just some red flags, right? If you know this about kids and going missing,

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the recovery rate for missing children in the United States, and I'm talking about like really,

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really difficult cases. Okay, not ones where the kid was taken by like, you know, their dad and he

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wouldn't return them or something. I'm talking about like just boom, a kid's missing and what happened.

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The recovery rate of those children in the 90s was 62%. Which you're like, okay, well great. That's

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better than half, but what if it's your kid? 62% sounds pretty scary to me. I don't like that stat.

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I'd rather like 98% of the kids be recovered. And recovery by the way doesn't mean alive,

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it just means they got them back. But hey, things haven't improved because I was looking at just,

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you know, some stats. And as of 2011, okay, and I know that's back a few ways, right? A few years.

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It moved up to 97%. So we're moving in the right direction. And I think that's, hey, that's a good

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thing. Let's acknowledge that. But in the 90s, not the case. So I'm sure her family was just sick,

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right? They're frantic. They can't find her. Her dad was quoted as saying, it was like she shut the

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door and just poof vanished off of the face of the earth. And quote, that makes me just feel sick.

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You know, you don't know who has your baby where your baby is. And y'all, this wasn't 24 hours.

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This wasn't 48 or 72. I mean, this is seven days of no response from their child and no leads. Nothing.

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So when Maddie disappeared, the entire town decided they were going to come to her aid.

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The case was literally so shocking to people that it even captivated the nation. This became

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huge national news and people were really just horrified that, oh, how can a kid just vanish

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without a trace? Like, how can people just vanish? This can't happen. And so hundreds, if not

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thousands of volunteers offered to help strangers, anybody, just people that were like, oh my god,

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they could empathize if this was my child. I guess that's sympathizing, but they were trying to put

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themself in these parents shoes. If this was my baby, I'd want someone to help me. So they created

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search parties and everyone in the town knew that she was missing. It was literally a parent's

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worst nightmare. And whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, camera crews started flocking to

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these suburbs. Camera crews were everywhere. And unlike the last case of Megan Canca, that was,

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you know, they got the answers really within about 24 hours of what happened to their daughter.

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This case, as I just said, lingered a bit longer. And so a full week would pass without hearing from

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her. And that's going to be really important. I want you to remember that seven days, seven whole

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days, okay? So it's like a, you know, a three ring circus in their town. And the activity in the

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community was nonstop. The cops were actively looking. Reporters from every media outlet were

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showing up in droves. And friends and family of the Clifton's went out of their way to stop what they

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were doing to go look for this sweet little girl because people don't vanish. Okay, this is not a

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magic show. Something happened, but they could not figure out what it was. Y'all, it got so big. I even

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found where the National Guard sent troops. Okay, people wanted to find this child.

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So where were the, the troops? This is kind of a sickening feeling, but they sent these National

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Guard troops walking through the sewer systems, trying to see if they could find any sign of her there,

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but it would all be in vain because they just didn't find her. And Maddie's parents were,

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were trying not to despair, okay? They were trying to keep hope, but they were facing some pretty

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grim facts. This was becoming so grim that even the FBI became involved because the local police had

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failed to yield anything, not even a suspect, not even someone to go after to even try to figure

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something out. They even put up a $100,000 reward for anyone that could lead to Maddie Clifton's

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safe return. That's pretty good. I mean, we have cases around here where people are murdered or

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missing or whatever and they can't even drum up a $10,000 reward. And I think it's sick that we

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have to offer money to get someone to speak up, but it is what it is. Money will talk in a lot of ways.

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So I thought I would tell you, you know, what are the steps taken by police when a child goes missing?

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Well, I want you to know every case is different, but here are a few things you could bet on in the

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event that a child goes missing. The first thing is they're going to do a crime scene search of the

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area where the child was last seen. That just makes sense, right? How far could a child have possibly

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gone if they're on foot? Maddie was on foot. They're also going to do a door to door search. So they're

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going to go see all the neighbors and and see, hey, did you see the kid when the last time you saw

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the kid who were they with? Then they might even open it up and get a little bit bigger and do a

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grid search, right? And, you know, depending on the landscape and what type of area you live in,

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grid searches are a good thing because they can break out their groups of volunteers or people come

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into help and kind of give them areas to search. And they're literally going to go land, see, or

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air. I mean, wherever you are, they'll put helicopters up in the air. They have these flair

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in helicopters that they can do heat seeking to see like at night, is she laying down in the woods

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or something like that? And commonly done also is what's called a roadblock search, which is going to

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be where they're stopping a lot of the cars at the same time of day and the location where the

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child was last seen because, look, people are creatures of habit and they tend to take the same

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route home or they tend to take the same route every day wherever they're going. So roadblock searches

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will sometimes produce witnesses who saw your child or observed them hanging out with somebody

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and they might remember an out of place vehicle. So think about how you drive to work every day or

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to daycare or whatever. There are certain things I expect to see on my way to work and if something is

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out of place, I might notice it even if in the moment, I don't realize it. So in this case, they were

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doing all of those things. I mean, they can even bring in bloodhounds to look and search out tracks

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or other types of dogs to see if they can get a scent on her, but y'all, they got nothing. I mean,

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nothing. That door to door canvassing, I mentioned though, where that search going door to door,

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would actually become part of an interesting chain of events though in just a little while. So

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see, the police did this. They went and did the door to door check with neighbors. They searched

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people's houses with their permission. You know, Josh Phillips mom and family allowed

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them to come in and police searched their home, not once, not twice, but actually three times. They

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went into that house because people knew that Maddie played with him and some other children too.

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So let me tell you more about Josh though, because I know you're like, well, tell me about this kid.

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Who is he? Well, y'all he's 14. He was described as quiet, but friendly. He had zero arrest history.

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He was not a problematic child. He had no history of violence, nothing like that. He was just a

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normal kid that lived at home. Even his teachers, when they were asked about him, they said,

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look, he's a popular kid. He wasn't one that would stand out or try to make a scene in school. He sat

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quietly in his desk. He did his work. They described him as an average kid, but they added he is fun and he's

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silly. So when he's in his element, kids liked him. He was funny. He was, he was, he was a goofy little kid.

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So naturally, you know, the police wanted to talk to him specifically because they were friends,

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and the police went to search the house. They found nothing out of the ordinary. And Josh even went

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and helped to look for Maddie because I was his friend and he was really sad that she was gone. And

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while they're searching, police got a huge bit of information. Guess what? There was another

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neighbor that they realized, oh my god, we need to go take a look at this fella. He's an adult though. He's

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not a child. And he would quickly jump to become the prime suspect in Maddie's disappearance. Why you ask?

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Because during their research, police found that this neighbor had been arrested and charged

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earlier, years earlier, in two sexual battery cases.

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Kinda echoes those sentiments I left in the Megan Kankakase, doesn't it? Because guess what? Both

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of those sexual battery charges against that neighbor were dropped. Both of them, he wasn't charged

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with one. He was charged with two. And neither one of them were followed up or went after. They were

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dropped. Bingo. The police shifted their suspicion to his direction because this guy now has a motive.

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We know that he likes to be sexually abusive to people. So in the meantime, Maddie's parents were like,

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okay, we can't do this. We have got to up the Annie. And so they decided they wanted to do media

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interviews because they were like, this is just necessary. Now we need the whole world to know

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or anybody that will listen to know, hey, our baby's gone. Our community knows. But what if she's

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traveling? Right? What if she's in a car with somebody and they've taken her and she's in another

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state, which happens, right? They want everyone to be on the lookout for their daughter and they

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wanted them to know her name. All right? It's been seven days. Their hope now has faded. Okay? And

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it's quickly turning into absolute despair. But amazingly, about that time, the police would quickly

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rule out that neighbor with the sexual battery charges history. But guess what? They're about to

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find out that they aren't very far off because it was a neighbor that was involved in her disappearance.

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I could not make this. I mean, fact is stranger than fiction. You know, or truth is

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stranger than fiction. Maddie's parents are doing that media recording, right? Doing that interview.

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They're literally wrapping up the interview. When Josh Phillips' mother is seen running as

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fast as she can across the street to a police officer. And what she would have to say is literally

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jaw dropping. Y'all, she found Maddie. She found Maddie, the mom of her of his

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of her friend found her. And you know, the cops like, oh my god, where is she? Where is she? And she

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says, I found her. But she's dead. And the cop is like, what? She's dead. Yeah, I found her. She's

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dead. How did you find her? We've been searching the air. We've been searching everywhere. How did

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you just find her? And are you ready for one of the sickest things ever? Listen to this.

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It's been seven days since a Maddie went missing, right? Seven days. Well, Josh's mom was cleaning

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their house and was livid at Josh because of the state of his bedroom. He was being a gross

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teen boy. And we all know what I'm talking about. Don't don't say me any hate, male. You know, I'm

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talking about teenage boys are gross. And he wasn't cleaning up his room. I mean, hell, he even had

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these pet birds and their cage was disgusting. It's stonk. And his room smelled. And she's like,

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you've got to clean this mess up. This is ridiculous. So she was pissed and she was fusing at Josh to

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clean his room. As she walked out of the room, she's walking out of the room. She felt something wet

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on her feet in the carpet. What the hell had this boy spilled on his carpet now? So not only is your

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room nasty, but now you got frickin wet carpet. Well, it wasn't that out of the ordinary because he had

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a water bed. Remember the old school water beds? Who came up with that idea? Anyway, he had a water bed.

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So she's like, great, the damn thing's leaking. Now we got to leak in water bed on top of your nasty

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ass room. So she gets down on her hands and knees and she pulls back a piece of the bed frame to find

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that that's where the this liquid was coming from. And when she pulled back the bed frame,

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there staring back at her from under the bed was a dead Maddie Clifton under her son's bed.

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That smell that was getting worse and worse and worse over the days in her home was the rotting corpse

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of eight-year-old Maddie Clifton stuffed under her son's bed. She had been there the whole time.

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When the police came in to talk to Josh, they went in his room. They acknowledged there was a little

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smell when they first went in there, but his room was disgusting and he just sat on his bed and the

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police questioned him. He even had a flier of Maddie, missing Maddie when they went back another time to

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question him on his nightstand. As you can imagine, the police were horrified as well as humiliated

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as their search failed to find Maddie who literally laid at their feet. Now I'm not going to give

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them complete hate because dogs didn't find anything. I don't know if they brought dogs in the house.

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They wouldn't have had a reason to at that point. And who expects to have a dead child under their

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son's bed? I mean, we might have to take a minute. Ladies, do you all want to go run and check

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under your son's bed? Because I hope you don't find anything but some nasty socks. This is just

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unbelievable. Like unspeakable. How in the world did you have a dead neighbor under your bed the whole

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time, Josh? So the police went back to the Phillips home and just as she claimed, they found Maddie's

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body entombed inside the frame of 14-year-old Josh's water bed. Right then, they taped it off and they

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have their crime scene across the street. So at the risk of being borderline morbid and I have to tell

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you this, I'm not trying to be gross. I need you to understand what they were dealing with, okay?

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I have to tell you the stages of decomp. So you can fully understand what this 14-year-old boy was

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readily going to bed every night and sleeping on top of. Like nothing had happened.

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All right, 24 to 72 hours after death, your internal organs start to decompose.

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Three to five days after death, that's when the body starts to bloat. And the blood containing like

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foam and the liquid and the juices from the body start leaking from the nose and the mouth,

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hence the liquid pouring out from under his bed and soaking his carpet. And then six to ten days

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after death, that's when the body turns from like a green color to a red as that blood decomposes

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and the organs and the abdomen start to accumulate gases that are released. The smell.

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And the, oh my god, y'all, he slept on top of her body for seven days.

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The only thing I guess in that home that may have been helping this situation was that that poor

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woman, her mother was smelling someone rot in her home, but they had air condition. So maybe it

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slowed the decomp a little bit, but obviously not enough because the liquids were pouring out of her.

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I mean, I know teenage boys are nasty y'all. I know they can smell. I remember vividly living in my

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parents' home and my room smelling like a freaking three dollar hooker live there because I had bath and

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body work spray like everywhere, okay? But you walk a few feet to my brother's room and it smelled

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like ball sweat, you know, and cheese or something, but I don't ever recall it smelling like a dead body

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and it's really weird to me that a dead body didn't ring more bells. But whatever, shout out to my

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brother's act though, I take it back that I said your room smelled like death when I was a teenager,

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two-shay, it in fact did not, but Josh's room did literally like holy shit. I'm gonna clap that one

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out holy shit like your room stink bad enough that your mama looked under the bed and found a whole

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dead person. No freaking sir. No sir. But in all seriousness, I can't imagine the horrors probably that

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that woman now has lived and I bet you that replays in her mind all the time, you know, you look under

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a bed and find a dead person and not only was Josh's life now ruined, but Maddie's life ruined,

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obviously she's the real victim here, but both mamas, Maddie lost her daughter, Josh's mom lost her son.

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And now police had to go and break the news to Maddie's mom that she was found and the whole time

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she was across the street stuffed under a teen boy's water bed.

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Now let's talk about the condition of Maddie's body and I don't mean as far as Decomp, I mean like

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evidence about her clothing and whatnot. You know like what could lead up to this and I'm really

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glad you want to know because here are the facts. Maddie's body was partially clothed and this really

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bothered me and you'll see what I mean when you listen to what what Josh claims happened,

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but she's partially clothed. The condition of her body showed that she had been beaten with a baseball

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bat and stabbed multiple times. So this wasn't a kid that passed out, this wasn't a kid that

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ate, you know, eight poison on accident or something. No, this is murder, this is animalistic attacking

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of this eight year old girl by a 14 year old and he beats her with a baseball bat and stabs her

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over and over and over again. So police were immediately in route to the middle school where Josh

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was sitting in class and they arrested him on campus. I mean imagine you're sitting in class next

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to a kid, you know, your ninth grade and one minute y'all are taking your English test and the next

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minute the police swoop in and grab him and arrest him for the murder of this missing girl that the

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whole community's been looking for. I'm imagining that those kids were pretty affected too by this,

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you know, that they were sitting next to the guy that did this. And he's charged with first degree

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murder at 14 years old. So soon he became the focal point of that national news broadcast instead of

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Maddie as the media normally does, but the people who knew Josh were literally in shock and having

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lived long enough to have friends that it turns out are absolute horrible people and family members

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that have done terrible things. I know that feeling when you are just dumbfounded. How could this have been

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not them, not this person? There's no way. Josh's own principal, his name was Jerome Wheeler.

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They interviewed him and he agreed that all that they could, everybody that was being asked about it,

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they just could not believe the news. They were having a really hard time believing this and that

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principal was even quoted as saying they're like Josh, Josh. Wait, Josh, Josh, because they, he says

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they'll say his name two or three times because they can't believe it. That kid? No way, no freaking way.

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But likewise, as that was happening, news started to spread fast to the friends of Maddie

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and they were finding out at her school. She went to San Jose Catholic school and so the media

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immediately runs to her school to see, you know, set up cameras like they do and there's reports

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that said that they were seeing parents flock to the school and children were just sobbing as

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their parent, you know, they're like hanging on their parents as their parents are taking them

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home for the day because they're having a process now, what happened to their friend and their

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horrific details are scary. Scary for a little kid, you know, your friend was found under a water bed

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murdered by another kid. Wow, so many young lives are affected in this case. So the police go and they

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interview Josh after they arrest him and this is the story that that Josh gives. He says that Maddie

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came over to play baseball and he knew his parents weren't home and so he hesitantly said yes. He

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didn't think that he should be playing baseball with her, but then according to his account,

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he accidentally hit her in the face with the baseball. Well, that's a lie because it was a baseball

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bat that she was hit with. A baseball does not bash your brains in, you know, but he says he hit her

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in the face with a ball and so she cried out and started screaming and he said when she wouldn't stop

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crying, that's when he made the decision to drag her into his house. His claim was that he was afraid,

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okay. He was really scared, but it wasn't because necessarily that he hurt Maddie. He was afraid of

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his father. See, he argued that his father was an alcoholic and that he was extremely violent

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and he had a very violent temper and he was death, deathly afraid of what his dad was going to do. He

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found out that Josh had been playing with someone while he wasn't home. So according to Josh, his father,

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his name was Steve Phillips. He was a computer specialist. He says that he was incredibly strict and

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violent, not only towards Josh, but also towards his mother and his mother's name was Melissa.

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And he said that Steve would become his dad would become extremely furious and I rate if other

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children were in the house without him there and he said it was even worse if he, you know, the dad had

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been drinking and he said my dad drinks a lot. So he said basically I just freaked out. So he then says,

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I pushed her, she was unconscious, I pushed her underneath my water bed until my parents

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you know got home or before my parents got home, I just shoved her under the bed. But here's the

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kicker. Okay. If he's this poor 14 year old kid who accidentally hurt this little girl, first of all,

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why is she now unconscious? Because remember I told you about the baseball bat. He's that he didn't.

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Why is she unconscious? Number one. And then number two, if he was just afraid because she was hurt,

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then why before nightfall did he remove his mattress and slit Matty's throat?

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with his parents home? That doesn't make sense. It just doesn't make any sense.

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So what did he use to stab or into cut or throat? He used his leatherman multi-tool knife and I don't

365
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:27,600
know if that's kind of bringing up vibes to you like it is to me, but remember Aiden Fucci, the

366
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:32,800
team killer who killed Tristan Bailey and his love of his leatherman tool his knife. He called it

367
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:42,400
picker. Well, he stabbed Matty in the chest seven times and then put her underneath the bed frame.

368
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:48,800
I just look, I know he's 14, but none of that makes sense to me and it's not to me it doesn't follow

369
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:57,840
logical 14 year old response. Even if your father is abusive, I can't understand the overkillden.

370
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:05,360
Right? If you're if you're if you're want to just hide her body, why then the overkill and going back

371
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:10,560
and doing more? I don't know, I don't like that. So Josh then slept on top of that water bed for the

372
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:17,440
next seven nights as her body began to decompose, never batting an eye, acting like everything was fine,

373
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:23,680
went to school. Hmm, where could she be? Now, listen, I have a 14 year old, okay? And I know that

374
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:27,600
they panic. I know that they do stupid things. If you have kids, you know that you know that they do

375
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:33,920
dumb shit and they'll try to talk their way out of it. However, this goes beyond screwing up and

376
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:40,080
and if no one was home, number one, then how would his father even know what happened?

377
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:45,520
How would his father even know what happened? So send her home, Josh.

378
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:51,840
Like, why would you make yourself more tied to what you're trying to distance yourself from? I don't

379
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:58,160
get that. Secondly, why drag her inside of your home? I mean, that's bringing more trouble and more

380
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:04,320
problems inside the home, which you argue is abusive. So why would you bring her into the war zone?

381
00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:09,040
I would think and y'all, I'm not saying this is okay, but I mean, I'm thinking if I was panicking,

382
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:13,520
I'd want her as far away from my house as possible, drag her a few streets over and drop her in a

383
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:18,400
ditch or something. Like, I don't understand why you would bring her in the home. Even a 14 year old

384
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:22,800
would know to make distance between you and your problem. That's why kids minimize and act like

385
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:29,520
they don't tell you the whole story. So why bring as he stated a crying screaming kid into your house?

386
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:35,680
I just don't buy that. Like, what are you accomplishing if nobody's home and she's crying, why are you

387
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:46,240
bringing her inside the house? Also, she's hit with a baseball bat, not a baseball as Josh is claiming.

388
00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:49,600
So he's lying about what really happened, which makes me wonder about motive.

389
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:56,400
The motive is weird here. You're saying you hit her with a ball. Okay, well, that would mean you hit

390
00:39:56,400 --> 00:40:02,800
her with a ball one time. She's got three or more blows to the head with a baseball bat. I looked at

391
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:08,640
what I could find on the autopsy and something that was glaringly missing to me, unless I missed it,

392
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:14,160
but I did not see where they, the autopsy said that it looked like she had an injury to her eye from

393
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:21,840
a baseball and then the other injuries from the baseball bat. So all I'm saying is I just think

394
00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:27,200
it's weird. I know maybe you felt cornered and like you were, you were stuck with her because she was

395
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:31,040
crying and so you had to bring her inside and then you felt like you needed to beat her with a baseball

396
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:35,840
bat, I guess, but I don't know. I just think there's, it's weird to me. I would have want to create

397
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:40,720
distance, not drag her into the house where my supposedly just massively abusive father was,

398
00:40:40,720 --> 00:40:47,760
because then she's in the house and he's gonna find her. So I'm also curious as to why in his haste

399
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:56,400
to hide her body that he found time to pull off her underwear and pull up her shirt. It kind of

400
00:40:56,400 --> 00:41:00,320
reminds me of that scene in Titanic, you know, when Jack is saving Rose in the beginning from jumping

401
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:04,480
to her death and then that pompous man comes up after everybody walks off and says to the hero and

402
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:08,320
they're like, funny, you jumped it so quickly to save her yet you had time to remove your shoes.

403
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:11,680
You remember that scene? So I know, look, there's gonna be some people right now that know this case

404
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:16,480
and they're like, no, no, no, it's because he drug her under the bed. Okay, let's think about a water bed

405
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:23,600
and you're dragging a body, you're dragging a body under the water bed. Okay, cool. I guess you can

406
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:34,480
make the argument that her panties and her pants came down as you drug her. But also when she was found

407
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:42,160
her shirt was pulled up over and her chest was exposed. I just, that doesn't match up either,

408
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:49,920
either the shirt would be down and then the pants would come down as you drug or not. I don't know.

409
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:56,240
I just, I find that odd and if you're willing to beat someone's brains in and kill them because

410
00:41:56,240 --> 00:42:00,320
they're crying, I don't think it's unreasonable to think maybe there was another motive behind that.

411
00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:05,040
All right, but hey, it's America. We can all have our own opinions. I like to be a free thinker

412
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:10,000
and establish my own thoughts on cases. I just don't, I'm not big on that whole, oh,

413
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:15,520
her panties just happened to come down because he was dragging her. I kind of feel like there was

414
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:20,320
some sexual intrigue there and I'm not saying he maybe he wanted to rape her but I think that there

415
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:26,320
might have been some sexual intrigue. She's younger, he's older, he's bigger, she's smaller. You know,

416
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:33,360
I also pulled his appeal paperwork because it's always interesting to me that some facts are left

417
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:38,000
out by the perpetrator in their explanation, but then years later whenever they go to their appeal

418
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:44,480
or to a hearing, there's always more that kind of comes out. All right, and this is how it reads in

419
00:42:44,480 --> 00:42:50,640
the appeal, the facts in the appeal in the courts. That evening several of the neighborhood children,

420
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:55,840
including Joshua took part in a search. Witnesses to that event described Joshua as quote, unquote,

421
00:42:55,840 --> 00:43:01,360
acting normal, but looking as if he had just taken a shower. The next day, a Jacksonville Sheriff's

422
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:06,960
office detective spoke with Joshua about Maddie who stated that he had seen Maddie that day but had

423
00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:14,720
not played with her. He was not supposed to play with her because of their age difference. That's

424
00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:23,600
different. What's the deal with the age difference? That strikes me. So even if you want to say that

425
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:30,880
there's an argument that the panties came down, I too find it odd that a 14 year old boy wants to

426
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:36,640
play with an eight year old girl. The age difference is huge. I have a 14 year old and an eight year old.

427
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:42,480
They have nothing in common. They don't, they don't, I mean, I know they're siblings, but I don't know.

428
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:47,600
And I would never let my eight year old go play with a 14 year old boy. Why the age difference?

429
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:53,840
So he says that they weren't supposed to play together and he was scared because his father was a

430
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:58,400
raging alcoholic, but when you get into the nitty gritty of the appeal, he says it's not because of

431
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:02,240
that. It's because of their age difference and what would it matter? Their age difference except

432
00:44:02,240 --> 00:44:07,840
for he might take advantage of a younger child. So police searched the Phillips storage shed and

433
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:12,320
car after Joshua's father arrived home, but they found nothing. A couple of days later, another

434
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:18,240
homicide detective went to Phillips home when only Joshua was there and he did interview Joshua as

435
00:44:18,240 --> 00:44:23,840
they sat on the bed in his room like I mentioned. Maddie's body was not discovered until November 10th,

436
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:28,400
1998 when Joshua's mother was upset and crying and flagged down the uniform police officer who was

437
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:33,280
doing an investigation in the neighborhood. The officers in Miss Phillips went to Joshua's room

438
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:38,320
and opened the door. There they saw two small feet with white socks sticking out from under the

439
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:44,160
bottom of Joshua's water bed, along with liquid coming from underneath the bed and tape on the floor.

440
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,920
A strong odor emanated from the room, which is immediately sealed as a crime scene,

441
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:52,160
and one of the detectives then picked up Joshua's school and took him to the police station.

442
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:56,880
When Joshua's room was searched, the police found several types of air fresheners,

443
00:44:56,880 --> 00:45:02,640
rolls of tape, a baseball bat hidden behind a dresser, and a leatherman knife tool. Maddie's body

444
00:45:02,640 --> 00:45:08,640
was under the water bed with her t-shirt pulled up and her panties beneath her. Joshua confessed to

445
00:45:08,640 --> 00:45:12,800
killing Maddie. He claimed that they were playing with a baseball in the backyard when it hit,

446
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:19,120
when he hit the ball very hard and accidentally struck her near the left eye. But the autopsy report

447
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:26,400
I looked at had no left eye mentioned damage from a baseball. She began to cry in hollar,

448
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:30,400
so Joshua, fearful that his father would be angry him for playing with the younger girl,

449
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:34,640
took her into his room. She was bleeding from the gash and crying loudly,

450
00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:40,160
and to keep his father from discovering her, he struck Maddie once or twice in the head. She

451
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:45,440
whimpered and when she began to mow more loudly, he took his knife and cut her throat.

452
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:49,600
Please do not be lost on the fact that this is like a child's life we're talking about.

453
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:54,320
This isn't, I don't want to get so caught up in the wording of what happened or didn't happen

454
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:58,880
that you're missing the point that a 14 year old slit a child's throat and beat her head with a

455
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:04,640
baseball bat. Then he concealed her body by prying off the side of his water bed and pushing Maddie

456
00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:10,080
underneath. Joshua's father had come home by this time and realizing that Maddie's labored

457
00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:16,400
breathing was loud enough for his father to hear in another room, Josh pulled the child out and stabbed

458
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:22,400
her in the lungs so that she would stop breathing. He explained that her shorts and underwear came off

459
00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:27,360
when he dragged her into his room and that her shoes came off when he shoved her under the bed the

460
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:33,600
second time. All of this happened because Josh was afraid of getting in trouble. But the state's

461
00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:39,600
medical examiner testified that Maddie had suffered three separate attacks. She was struck three

462
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:46,320
times on her forehead and on top of her head receiving wounds that would have been fatal about 30 minutes

463
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:52,400
after inflection. Her neck wounds perforated her windpipe causing her to bleed to death or drown in

464
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:59,920
her own blood. Nine stab wounds to her chest and abdomen were inflicted when she was all ready dead.

465
00:46:59,920 --> 00:47:07,440
Why would you stab a dead kid? Just curious why would you stab any kid but why would you stab a dead

466
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:12,720
one? Now I do want to add in this. They do have the argument here that Maddie's hand was still clutched

467
00:47:12,720 --> 00:47:18,720
around a bracket from the water bed frame which the argument was that she was still alive when Josh

468
00:47:18,720 --> 00:47:24,480
shoved her underneath the bed. There could be a million different scenarios there of when she died

469
00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:32,000
or how she died. The doctor is saying that there were post mortem wounds and that's scientifically

470
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:40,640
proven. Maybe Josh is telling the truth. Maybe he remembers it but the doctor says that she would have

471
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:44,480
already been dead. There's a million ways this could have happened. I know you're probably screaming

472
00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:48,160
at me right now but remember I'm recording live. I'm not sitting here just reading a complete script.

473
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:53,280
So I just don't understand if she was alive when she was still put under the bed then you had the

474
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:58,640
opportunity to render her help. If the autopsy is correct which I tend to believe the autopsy is,

475
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:04,560
then she was had three separate attacks. Her head's been hit multiple times and then you cut her throat

476
00:48:04,560 --> 00:48:10,960
and the doctor is saying she's drowning in her blood and then you go back and you stab her seven

477
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:15,200
more times post mortem. I just don't see the purpose in that but then again I don't murder children

478
00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:20,160
and drag them under my bed. So I guess I'll let you think about that one and you can decide what

479
00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:26,000
you think happened. I don't really think it matters in the long run. I mean whether she died in a few

480
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:30,400
minutes or a few hours he still shoved her under the bed to suffer and die and rendered no aid

481
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:36,720
whatsoever and I just don't like that. I just can't understand how that would be your thought process.

482
00:48:36,720 --> 00:48:44,320
So this trial as you can imagine became a media gold mine. You had murder, a missing child, a teen boy

483
00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:49,840
versus a young girl, a dead body under a water bed, a kid who claims that he was abused by his father

484
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:58,960
and then maybe some sexual abuse with her clothing being moved about. But I can tell you I did not

485
00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:03,760
see anything that said that she was sexually abused. So I want to be completely fair and honest

486
00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:11,600
and not leave out stuff to fit an agenda of any type. So the case was everywhere and another issue

487
00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:16,640
though that they encountered with this trial was that so many people in the tight neighborhood

488
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:25,440
were in such disbelief about Maddie Clifton's murder and who did it that the trial judge had to order

489
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:31,760
that the trial be moved and take place in a county halfway across the state in order to hopefully

490
00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:37,600
curb any jury bias that there might be. And so this is going to be called a change of venue and a

491
00:49:37,600 --> 00:49:43,600
change of venue is going to be granted when the applicant proves that by reason reason of prejudice

492
00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:50,240
existing in the public mind or because of undue influence that a fair and impartial trial

493
00:49:50,240 --> 00:49:55,760
cannot be obtained in the parish where the prosecution is pending. All right. And so hey,

494
00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:59,840
legitimate argument. I'd say move it too. You know why? I don't want to be able to come back on

495
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:05,600
appeal and say nope, there was undue bias in my case. So I think that was smart. Move it to another

496
00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:11,120
to another area. Another famous example of this by the way was the OJ Simpson case because in 1995

497
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:16,240
remember he went on trial for killing his wife and and Ronald Goldman and the courts granted him

498
00:50:16,240 --> 00:50:21,040
a change of venue and they moved it to Santa Monica from downtown Los Angeles because it was so

499
00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:26,720
big right they were trying to just get that jury pool to not be from right there where everybody

500
00:50:26,720 --> 00:50:32,560
their mom knew what happened. So Josh Phillips attorney's name was Richard Nichols. He did not put a

501
00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:39,760
single witness on the stand during trial which was kind of a bold move there I would think.

502
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:44,720
But he did it strategically when it was all said and done. He was hoping that he could use his

503
00:50:44,720 --> 00:50:51,200
closing argument as the bomb drop to try to save you know, Josh from you know, save his life from

504
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:56,160
being locked up or getting the death penalty or whatever. Now he was going to emphasize in that

505
00:50:56,160 --> 00:51:01,280
closing statement that Phillips was a scared child acting in desperation because he was so abused

506
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:07,200
by his father that he feared his wrath and what would happen. And so that is the circumstances

507
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:13,120
that would explain away why he acted in the manner that he did. So the trial took place on July 6th

508
00:51:13,120 --> 00:51:19,360
in 1999 or it started and it was a pretty short trial which you would have expected this or I would

509
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:25,440
expected it to be weeks or months but it only lasted two days. It lasted shorter than that he was missing

510
00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:31,520
you know. And the jurors deliberated for about two hours before they found Josh Phillips guilty

511
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:38,880
of first degree murder. And so that means the jurors didn't do a whole lot of arguing about his guilt.

512
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:42,960
That's a really quick turnaround on a case. It's kind of like they reviewed it and they all agreed

513
00:51:42,960 --> 00:51:50,480
first degree murder. What Josh says happened would really sound like a second degree murder if it was

514
00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:55,840
not planning and prep and intention right. If he says he accidentally hit her with the ball

515
00:51:56,560 --> 00:52:02,480
and then killed her they said no they went first degree which is you know the worst degree you can get.

516
00:52:02,480 --> 00:52:07,920
So now why wasn't he given the death penalty for what he did some people may not know. So I want to

517
00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:12,800
just say that we as a society have come to the agreement that some people are just too young to be

518
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:19,520
executed and that we cannot be adults killing children. And I'm gonna let you know I agree

519
00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:24,960
with this to the extent as long as we understand what the term child means. You know some people

520
00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:31,120
think an 18 19 and 20 year old 21 year old 20 year old you know is a child. No they're young but you

521
00:52:31,120 --> 00:52:39,600
definitely know better of what you're doing you know at those ages 14 I don't know and if I'm

522
00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:44,480
making you mad that's cool at least you're thinking about it 14 to me that's a bit young and

523
00:52:44,480 --> 00:52:50,000
there's enough in my mind personally where I feel like he was old enough to know better.

524
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:56,720
Obviously I don't know that he necessarily because he was panicked that he was thinking about the

525
00:52:56,720 --> 00:53:03,200
entirety of the life altering decisions he was making in that moment but I not the killing part

526
00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:06,800
I know he knew better but I mean he knew he wasn't even supposed to be playing with a girl younger

527
00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:11,440
than him which is why he says he had to kill her so he understood rules and authority but when it's

528
00:53:11,440 --> 00:53:15,520
all said and done I don't want to be someone that's executing a 14 year old that's not for me.

529
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:20,800
It's not my personal code of conduct but you certainly can disagree with me go America you do your

530
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:25,280
thing. Now I don't want to bore you with anything Supreme Court wise I know people aren't usually

531
00:53:25,280 --> 00:53:31,520
into Supreme Court cases but to tell you where the decision comes from to not execute that's an

532
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:36,080
Eighth Amendment thing that's considered or there's an Eighth Amendment argument there you know cruel

533
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:42,000
and unusual and unusual punishment but where they decided some people think life in prison is too

534
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:47,200
much for a kid. How can you take a kid who's not even legally able to drink or drive or do whatever

535
00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:54,640
how can you take away their whole life you know for something they did as a kid. Well I did pull

536
00:53:54,640 --> 00:54:00,960
his the findings of the courts whenever he appealed his ruling of and being sentenced to life in

537
00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:07,600
prison and the court said that they find the penalty of life in prison it not to be grossly

538
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:13,680
disproportionate to the crime of first degree murder meaning it's not cruel and unusual

539
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:19,360
because it's not disproportionate you took a life therefore you lose your life in essence that

540
00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:24,880
you'll have to live it out and the in prison and the argument here is that they say that the

541
00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:32,240
court held that Mr. Philip's sentence did not violate the proportionality principle mandated by

542
00:54:32,240 --> 00:54:38,640
the Eighth Amendment so they they were equal it doesn't matter that he was 14 years old they did not

543
00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:46,560
feel that the factor of his age outweighed the heinous conduct an ultimate harm death that he inflicted

544
00:54:46,560 --> 00:54:56,640
upon his victim and that was their actual finding. So he was sentenced and he has life in prison now

545
00:54:56,640 --> 00:55:03,440
the Supreme Court found in 2012 that they said they thought life sentences for juveniles were

546
00:55:03,440 --> 00:55:09,520
going to be unconstitutional at this point so that mean that he became eligible for recennencing hearing

547
00:55:09,520 --> 00:55:16,960
now this was absolutely horrendous because her sister was terrified and was totally in whole

548
00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:21,920
heartedly against it her sentiments echoed mine where she says Maddie doesn't get a chance to walk

549
00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:28,080
this earth again so why should he get to walk free in the earth and luckily for society and Maddie's

550
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:34,560
family when his recennencing date came up in 2017 the judge upheld the original sentence and

551
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:40,240
ensured that Josh Phillips would spend the rest of his years in prison. So whether or not you agree

552
00:55:40,240 --> 00:55:44,880
with the outcome of this case look Josh Phillips wasn't a good friend I can just say that either he

553
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:50,560
was willing to kill in order to save himself from being in trouble or he was willing to kill to cover

554
00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:56,080
up his sick fantasies of murders and looking at naked little girls because by the way they found

555
00:55:56,080 --> 00:56:02,080
that Josh was watching pornography for the hour prior to when he did kill Maddie if that's important to

556
00:56:02,080 --> 00:56:10,400
you either way he proved he was and is capable of horrific actions in order to keep a secret

557
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:17,360
and it's interesting to me that we usually share our secrets with those we love and trust most

558
00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:22,640
we feel like they're the closest to us but I believe in always keeping your head on a swivel because

559
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:28,240
after all one of the most dangerous creatures on this earth is a fake person who calls them self your

560
00:56:28,240 --> 00:56:33,920
friend

561
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:42,880
[Music]