MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A man admitted killing two people, including his girlfriend, and injuring two others in a shooting rampage at a suburban hotel but said Wednesday in court that they were inadvertent victims.
A jury was expected to continue deliberating Thursday in the case against Gregg Phillips, 25, who is charged with six felonies, including two counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
Phillips testified Wednesday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court that the .38-caliber pistol that shot Sandra Wisniewski, 23, in the head fired accidentally. He said it got snagged his clothing - or the armored vest he was wearing "just in case" - as he pulled the gun out of his sweat pants "just to scare her" during an argument Nov. 5.
"Sandy has done pointed guns at me before," Phillips told the jury under a prosecutor's heated cross-examination. "It's not an uncommon thing in our relationship."
Phillips also testified he was drinking and taking the drug Ecstasy earlier in the day.
Phillips blamed the other three people he shot on being startled, a fast-firing hand-held machine gun, the confusion of the gun smoke-clouded hallway and his desire "to be left alone."
German businessman Anton Uebelhor, 43, was also killed at the Comfort Suites in Oak Creek. Phillips faces life in prison several times over if convicted.
His attorney, Richard Johnson, conceded Phillips ought to be convicted of taking a hostage and possessing a gun as a felon but argued the other charges were too severe. He urged jurors to convict Phillips of several lesser charges.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams said Phillips was a vicious killer who turned calculating after the bloody night in the hotel.
Jeffrey McCarthy, a hotel guest the day of the shootings, testified Tuesday Phillips held him hostage.
"He told me that he had just killed his girlfriend and a whole bunch of people," McCarthy said.
"I thought he was going to kill me."
McCarthy said Phillips apologized to him before giving himself up to police.
Here we go again,
Quote:
I didn't do it, the guns did.
A gun is no different that a car, hammer, screwdriver, or chain saw. All are tools, harmless when left alone, and useful when in the hands of qualified operators yet only guns get attacked when an unqualified drugged out individual uses one.
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There's no such thing as truth, only perception
Killer blames gun for deaths
