Man guilty in plot to kill
Former L.A. CEO was accused of hiring drug dealer to slay former business associate.
The former chief executive of a Los Angeles medical marketing firm was found guilty Friday of hiring a drug dealer to kill a business rival.
David Phillips, who used to run NKP Medical Marketing, was found guilty in Los Angeles federal court of arranging the murder-for-hire plot, according to defense attorney Glen Jonas.
“We respectfully disagree with the verdict,” Jonas said. The lawyer said Phillips, 36, would appeal.
The plot was disrupted by agents of Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans and Los Angeles. A suspected methamphetamine trafficker, who was the target of a separate drug
investigation, was heard discussing a “hit” on a tapped telephone line late last year, court records show.
That call sparked an investigation that spanned from Louisiana to Southern California to track down the person trying to organize the killing. Federal agents even staged a bloody murder scene, with the help of the would-be victim, to help ensnare Phillips.
After investigators heard the wiretapped comment about the planned killing, an undercover agent contacted the suspected drug trafficker in Los Angeles in February, according to a criminal complaint. The pair met several times, and the suspect gave information about Phillips to authorities after his arrest in April.
The suspect told investigators that Phillips had given him $30,000 to launch a “marijuana venture” in early 2016, but when he could not repay his debt, Phillips offered to forgive the loan in exchange for carrying out the killing. The would-be victim, who was identified in court only by the initials S.F., once helped Phillips run NKP Medical Marketing, according to the complaint. He left the business after they had a falling-out in late 2014 or early 2015.
On the day Phillips was arrested earlier this year, he met the suspected drug dealer at NKP’s Los Angeles offices. Agents provided the suspected dealer with a staged photograph that showed the intended victim with what appeared to be bruises and a gunshot to the forehead, complete with phony blood splatter on the wall behind his head, according to the complaint.
Phillips “appeared nervous” while looking at the picture and his “hands were shaking,” according to the complaint. He was arrested a short time later.
Jonas has said Phillips did nothing wrong and dismissed prosecutors’ claims that the supposed target of the murder-for-hire plot was a business rival of his client.
“The purported victim is a disgruntled former employee,” Jonas told The Times earlier this year.
Phillips ran the marketing company for nearly 10 years, according to public records. His brother took over as CEO in April, after Phillips was criminally charged.
Two other defendants, David Suiaunoa and Lucky Fua Iosua, were indicted in the murder-for-hire plot and were in custody in Louisiana. Suiaunoa pleaded guilty to charges related to drug trafficking and the murder plot in July, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in New Orleans said. He is scheduled for sentencing next year. Iosua is to go on trial this month.