Judge: Accused killer of Lyft driver ‘acute danger’ and ‘continued threat’
Calling him “an acute danger” to the community, a judge again denied bond for a teenager accused of murdering a female Lyft driver from Eastpointe who was reportedly killed while working in Pontiac.
At a hearing Thursday afternoon, 50th District
Judge Ronda Gross declined to set bond for Kemarrie Phillips, 19, charged with open murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the Oct. 21 death of Dina Terrell, 49.
“I find him a continued threat to anyone in the city of Pontiac…I find him an acute danger to our community and the greater community outside Pontiac,” Gross said, in response to defense attorney Judith Gracey’s request to again address bond for Phillips.
Gross also said it’s to Phillips’ benefit to stay in the Oakland County Jail as the case against him continues. “I think it’s safer for him to remain behind bars because of what has happened,” Gross added.
Oakland County Sheriff deputies found Terrell in her car at around 5:15 a.m. in a car wedged between a utility pole and street sign. She was in the front seat with a gunshot wound to the head, and pronounced dead at a local hospital. Phillips was identified as a suspect through a Lyft app that was running on Terrell’s cell phone and other recovered evidence, the sheriff’s office said.
At Thursday’s hearing, Gracey and assistant prosecutor Heather Brown agreed that the case has an extensive amount of evidence and requested a probable cause conference to be held several weeks out. It’s scheduled for Jan. 5, 2023.