Brandon Phillips pleads not guilty to drug charges
Convicted murderer says ‘there’s nothing for me’ at HMP
Brandon Phillips pleaded not guilty to drug charges Friday morning, and asked the judge to set a trial date for later in the year so he can first be transferred to a federal prison.
Phillips, 30, told the court he’s been at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s for three years and is hoping to be transferred to a mainland jail soon, in order to avail of better programming.
“There’s nothing here for me,” he said.
Phillips was convicted last fall of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 63-year old Larry Wellman. Wellman was shot during an attempted armed robbery at a downtown St. John’s hotel.
As a result, Phillips is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 12 years. He’s appealing his conviction on a number of grounds, including that the verdict is “unreasonable and cannot be supported by evidence.”
While in custody awaiting his murder trial, Phillips was charged with three counts of drug possession, after correctional officers allegedly found him with marijuana and heroin that was later discovered to contain fentanyl.
Last April, Phillips’ lawyer had asked for the drug charges to be set for speedy disposition, meaning Phillips would plead guilty. However, on Friday he entered not guilty pleas to the three charges.
Phillips told the court he’s waiting to be transferred to a federal prison to serve his murder sentence, but the move was being held up by the drug charges.
Two days have been set aside for the trial, which will begin Nov. 6.