Murderous Children: 14 Year Old Joshua Phillips Murdered His 8-Year-Old Neighbour
88An Accident, or An Act of Evil?
"She Was a Little Girl Who Didn't Deserve to Die" ~Josh Phillips, 6 Years Later
It was November 3rd, 1998, when 8-year-old Maddie Clifton went missing in Jacksonville, Florida. When she was reported missing, police began searching for her, and they started interviewing the neighbours. Almost immediately, they had a neighbour in mind as a suspect. That neighbour had been arrested and charged more than 15 years earlier in two sexual battery cases; though both times the charges against him were dropped.
As it turned out, their suspect was the wrong man, but her murderer was indeed a neighbour. Hundreds of people would volunteer in the search for Maddie, scouring the woods and dumpsters around the neighbourhood. The search for Maddie would end a week after she first disappeared, but it wasn't searchers who found her body. It was Melissa Phillips, 14-year-old Joshua Phillips mother, who found her. Thinking that her son's water bed appeared to be leaking, she went to inspect it, and found Maddie Clifton's corpse hidden underneath. She ran out the house, and immediately went to the police.
She Was Hidden Under His Bed For a Week...
2003 CBS 48 Hours Special on Joshua Phillips
What Happened & Why?: "I Don't Know"
Josh Phillips was at school when the discovery was made, and that's where police arrested him. Everyone was completely shocked. The 14-year-old boy had absolutely no history of violence, and no one wanted to believe that he could be capable of murder, but he was.
Josh confessed to the police that he had murdered her, but it started off with an accident, he said. Josh claimed that they had been playing together, and he had panicked after he had accidentally hit Maddie in the head with a baseball. He carried her into the house, brought her inside to his bedroom, and put her on the floor, where she began to make noises and cry. He said he was afraid of his dad's reaction if he found Maddie in the house. He was scared, and he didn't want to get in trouble for hurting her, so in a panic, he beat her with a baseball bat, and stabbed her to keep her from screaming and crying. Police were able to retrieve both the bat and the knife used in the assault. He then hid her under his bed.
When asked years later how he could on with his life with her body hidden in his bedroom, he said that he even though he made no conscious decision to, he just ignored it. He was in denial, he couldn't believe in the reality of it, so he lived in a fantasy world, like nothing had happened.
When asked why this happened, Josh says he doesn't really know, even to this day. Phillips has stated that if he could take it all back, he would.
News Reports After Josh Was Convicted of Murder
Trial, Verdict, & Sentencing
Joshua Earl Patrick Phillips, at age 15, was charged with first degree murder in the death of his 8-year-old neighbour and playmate, Madelyn Clifton. He was charged as an adult.
His trial was moved to a different county due to the flood on media coverage in the Jacksonville area. He was convicted of the first degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. He was not eligible for the death penalty in Florida, because he was under the age of 16 at the time of the crime.
Since the trial, Maddie's parents have divorced, and Josh's father has died in a car accident. Josh, on the other hand, has been in the appeal process. In 2002, an appeals court upheld his original conviction. In late 2004, his mother, Melissa Phillips, began seeking a new trial. She believed that his age at the time of the murder should be taken into account in regards to his sentence. In the meantime, two of the officials who were involved in his sentencing have said they are having second-thoughts. In 2005, new hearing dates were set for Josh Phillips. Their goal is to at least have the charges reduced to second degree murder, so that Josh might one day be eligible for parole.
Despite this, his case is still going through the appeal process, and at age 26, Joshua Phillip is still in prison serving his life sentence.
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For More Information on Maddie Clifton's Murder & Joshua Phillips...
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my other articles in the "Murderous Children" series;
12 Year Old Cristian Fernandez Killed His 2 Year Old Brother & Sexually Abused Another Sibling
16 Year Old Rachel Pittman Stabbed a Mother & Her Two Children to Death
10 Year Old Joseph McVay Shot & Killed His Mother After An Argument Over Chores
12 Year Old Jasmine Richardson Murdered Her Parents & 8 Year Old Brother
11 Year Old Serial Killer Mary Bell
12 Year Old Lionel Tate Killed a 6 Year Old Girl
15 Year Old Alyssa Bustamante Brutally Murdered a 9 Year Old Girl
or articles in the "Parents Who Kill" series;
Elaine Campione Drowned Her Two Daughters (with some disturbing video)
Alexandra Tobias Murdered Her Infant Son When He Interrupted Her Facebook Game
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Thanks for your comment, you're right, his story really doesn't make much sense. He was young, and he did something awful, but I do genuinely see remorse in him when I watch the videos. I don't think it is a ploy. I don't think that means he should be let out of prison, but I do think they should have been providing him with some sort of psychiatric counseling, and they never have. I would feel far better knowing that any child who committed such a violent act was getting some sort of help, even if they are likely to remain in prison for their lives. We do have to take age into some sort of consideration when tragedies like this occur.
Joshua killed the little girl because he scared of being punished by his dad?
That was hard to accept but the reality indeed what it is. So who should be blamed here? The father, family or Joshua himself?
One thing for sure, Joshua would have undergone a dramatic change in term of his psychology behavior and thinking. I believe he regretted what he had done and which can't be undone. That's the saddest part of all.
This is like when a man accidently runs someone over while drunk and flees the scene.
Don't know if this is what happened.
I dont blame him one bit,why..Because she shouldnt have been over at his house i blame her parents because they shoulda been watchin her..Now he's spening the rest of his life for somethin her parents should be blamed for.
20 years tops. There are worse people who have done worse things AS ADULTS serving far less time. Life w/o at 14 ??? Outrageous. I do feel for the little girls family but shes dead and as unfortunate as that is i see sense in ending two lives
i feel real sorry for this girl but was her parents fault because she was only young and he was like 14 they should have known better
I'm thinking he must've been doing something sexual with her, and killed her when she said she'd tell.
Why would a 14 year-old-boy be "playing" with an 8 year-old-girl? Fishy from the get-go.
I agree with Kenwu, and some of you, but it was a child even if he has done is very regrettable and horrible. You can imagine what the atmosphere for killing Josh lived in fear of having trouble with his own father. The culprit here is the father who has traumatized his family and made ??his son a monster. I think the system is mistaken, these children need psychological help, social, love, not a life sentence? I do not think this is the ideal. josh why that has never had a problem of violence must remain in prison for life so much else of his dangerous outside. Watch lionel tate case that took three years for killing a little girl. Josh was a child who should be protecting the government. It must come out, it has enough pay. Imagine if it was your son, brother or a family member 14 years of which must remain in prison for life. think not only Maddie, but the child was Joshua's.
Creepy that someone could sleep in a bed that a dead body was under for that long?? Even one day, for that matter! I don't think we should blame the parents at all. They had nothing to do with It. He was "afraid" of his father? Well, yeah, he knew that after killing her for sure with a knife after she "accidently" got hit with a baseball he was up shit's creek. Without a boat! I personally think It was an excuse. He wanted to kill the little girl. Because he's a sick person. He's right where he belongs, and I hope the girl haunts him in prison every chance she gets!
His Mother thinks his age should have been taken into account? IT WAS WHEN HE DIDN'T GET THE CHAIR.
I'm a Jacksonville native and watched all this unfold.. even met his Dad once at a company Christmas party, he hardly struck me as the "Monster" type, but that kid sure does considering what he did.
Aww he's remorseful? well that just makes it all better huh?
Beating someone with a baseball bat, strangling them with a phone cord then stabbing them 11 times and stuffing the body under your bed is hardly "accidental" poor poor Josh. hope he gets the same in prison.
Isnt it amazing all the people that Comment on all these child murders... Oh poor guy... Poor poor baby scared of daddy... What of all the innocents who die at their hands and all the families who suffer the loss .. THE DEATH PENALTY IS OK... It banishes them to the next world where they don't get to murder anyone else or earn a law degree in prison or workout ... The blood of the victims of these horrid crimes cries out for justice...... They need to be banished to the next world... Nothing personal ...they simply need to be extinct... And if it deters-- great-- and if it doesn't --thats irrelevant.. U don't get to take in air once u stop another from taking in air in these cases if vicious demonic murder... Stop all the excusing... Wake up
@Tim
From your comment, I get the feeling there is probably no real reason for me to reply, but I will.
First of all, you are lumping in every single case of "child murderers", and saying that all of these children should just be given the death penalty. That is absolutely ludicrous; the only thing that each of these cases has in common is the age of the offenders. Secondly, you, like many other people, seem to want to forget that these are CHILDREN. They are not adults, their brains are not fully developed, and they do not have the same capacity or understanding of their actions that adults do. Secondly, as children, they were not just "born evil", most of them are products of the environment they were raised in, which is something that needs to be considered.
The fact is that people sometimes get convicted for things that they didn't do. You can't "take back" the death penalty. Even if the death penalty would rid the world of some horrible monsters, it's not worth it if there is even one innocent person who is put to death. The truth of the matter is that it does not deter crime at all. Personally, I think the death penalty lets perpetrators off too easily; death is an easy way out. Having to live the rest of your life in prison is not. That being said, I will never EVER be in favour of the death penalty for children. That is absolutely ridiculous, and completely ignoring that fact that children are not adults; how is it fair to hold accountable a child, without a fully developed brain, to the same standard as an adult?
Killing is wrong regardless of the age or reason. It's just wrong. And murderers must be punished.
OMG. I really do hope that Josh might be free one day. I do think he has paid his innocently wrong doing. I'm praying for him and also Maddie's soul. God bless to them.
He was 14yrs old. My nephew is barely gna turn 6 && knows better than to harm someone younger than him. By that age 14 they should know better right from wrong. && if they dont then they might be mentally ill...buut even most mentally challenged childern know right from wrong.
garynew 17 months ago
his story makes little sense, then again, teens often do things that make little sense, extremely tragic case on both sides.