The state Supreme Court this month upheld a death sentence against a Moore County man convicted of brutally killing four people during a robbery.
The justices ruled that Mario Lynn Phillips, 43, received a fair trial and deserves to die for his role in the December 2003 slayings at a Carthage mobile home despite his "borderline level of intellectual functioning" and any "emotional disturbance" he was feeling at the time of the crime.
"We are nonetheless convinced that the sentence of death here is not disproportionate," the court wrote in its June 16 ruling. "Accordingly, we conclude that defendant received a fair trial and capital sentencing proceeding, free from prejudicial error, and the death sentence recommended by the jury and imposed by the trial court is not disproportionate."
The crime took place several hours after Phillips learned from Fayetteville police that his brother had been shot, according to details released in the ruling.
Assuming his brother was dead, Phillips, who had been using marijuana and Ecstasy the night before, continued drinking heavily and using drugs before driving to Moore County with his girlfriend, Renee McLaughlin, and a friend, Sean Ray, to tell Phillips' mother about the shooting, court documents say.
The three then went to the Carolina Lakes Trailer Park in Carthage to buy more marijuana. A resident, Daryl Hobson, brought them to the home of Eddie Ryals, where they also met Amanda Cooke Varner, Carl Justice and Joseph Harden.
The group talked for about 30 minutes until Ryals got up to use the bathroom. Phillips then pulled a gun, demanded drugs and cash and then shot Ryals and Justice, court documents say.
Throughout the course of the attack, Phillips and Ray shot, beat and stabbed the occupants of the mobile home as they ransacked it looking for drugs. In the end, they poured gasoline on the home and torched it.
Varner, who had been stabbed more than 20 times and had her throat slashed, was able to crawl out the burning building and survive. Ryals, Justice, Hobson and Harden all died.
After his arrest, Phillips was interviewed by detectives from the Moore County Sheriff's Office, helping them prepare a written statement in which he says he had shot the victims and that Ray followed-up by stabbing them "to make sure that they were dead."
Phillips' lawyers argued in part that he wasn't given access to a lawyer during the interview and that he was substantially impaired by drugs and alcohol at the time and didn't understand the consequences of his actions when he waived his Miranda rights.
The state Supreme Court found that Phillips never asked for a lawyer during the interview and that he was not too intoxicated to give a voluntary statement to police.
Both of Phillips' co-conspirators also have been convicted for their roles in the crime. Ray, now 31, is serving life without parole for the murders. McLaughlin, now 27, is serving a minimum of 12 years on charges of kidnapping and accessory after the fact to murder.
Phillips remains on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh.
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