NORTH LITTLE ROCK — An 18-year-old man was arrested Tuesday in the 2011 killing of his father, North Little Rock police said.
Police said they arrested Cacedric Jamal Phillips at 7:15 a.m. at his residence at 5904 Nicole Drive regarding his involvement in the shooting death of Alfredrick Phillips, whom they found dead in his home at 1601 W. 16th St. on July 29, 2011.
Police say 49-year-old Alfredrick Phillips, who owned and ran Fredrick’s Auto Sales in North Little Rock, was killed the day before his body was found.
Although Cacedric Phillips was 17 at the time of the death, he will be prosecuted as an adult, police said.
According to a North Little Rock District Court affidavit, the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.
The arrest was made after witnesses came forward with additional information earlier this month, the affidavit states.
A witness said in August 2011 that within two weeks of Alfredrick Phillips’ death, the witness purchased a handgun in a black holster from Cacedric Phillips for $75, which the witness said Phillips eventually picked back up and threw into a river, the affidavit said.
The same witness provided another interview this month, according to the affidavit, and said he drove Phillips to his father’s house July 28, 2011. The witness quoted Phillips as saying he wanted money from his father for a new tattoo and that if his father refused, he would take the money.
The witness said he heard multiple gunshots while parked outside the West 16th Street home, and when he approached the house, he saw Phillips coming out putting money and a handgun in a black holster into his pocket and heard him say, “I got it, let’s go,” the affidavit states.
Cacedric Phillips said in a September interview with police that he had taken money from his father in the pastbut that on the night of his father’s death, he was in his apartment all night, the affidavit states.
Phillips is to appear today in North Little Rock District Court.
Phillips’ arrest came just six weeks after he and Alfredrick Phillips’ other five children each received $31,170.36 in life insurance proceeds as a result of their father’s death, according to federal court records.
Because all six siblings signed an agreement May 30 to divide equally the $188,000 in life insurance benefits, and a federal judge approved the agreement June 11, “I believe it’s final,” attorney Marva Davis of Little Rock said Tuesday when asked if Cacedric Phillips might have to pay the money back if convicted. “There is no recourse at this point.”
Davis represented the six siblings after Primerica LifeInsurance Co. filed a complaint Nov. 4, 2011, seeking the court’s guidance on how to divide the life insurance benefits in light of police declaring Alfredrick Phillips’ death a homicide and telling the insurance company that one or more of his children “are suspected of being involved in his death,” while refusing to be more specific.
Staci Dumas Carson, a Little Rock attorney who represented Primerica, was on vacation this week and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Davis said that because it seemed at the time that “no arrest was imminent,” the heirs agreed to evenly divide the insurance money, even if the police considered one or more of them a suspect in their father’s death.
Davis is also the attorney for the senior Phillips’ estate and said she feels sure that Cacedric Phillips’ arrest will lengthen the process of dividing the “six-figure” estate that resulted from the senior Phillips’ ownership of the used-car lot.
Davis said she had also known the elder Phillips, that he was a “great dad,” and that she believes “they were all close to their dad. This is going to be difficult.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 12 on 08/09/2012