John Dwight Phillips appears before Judge William T. Boyett in Murray County, Ga., Superior Court on Monday for jury selection. Phillips is charged with homicide in the beating death of his mother's boyfriend, Tommy Walraven, during a drunken argument on Christmas day last year.Terri Lynn Welch said this morning that she watched her son kill her boyfriend, though she didn't know it at the time.
Welch told a jury in Murray County Superior Court that 29-year-old John Dwight Phillips and 62-year-old Tommy Randall Walraven had been drinking last Christmas when Walraven told Phillips he needed to go back home, to his wife. Phillips argued back, told Walraven he was the one who needed to leave.
Then, Welch told the jury this morning, Walraven walked into a bedroom, grabbed a shotgun and shoved it into Phillips' gut. The gun was empty, but Phillips didn't know that. He fought Walraven, pushed him from the dining room to the front door, then from the front door to the living room.
Welch took the gun away. Walraven sat on the couch. Then, Phillips punched him a couple more times, Welch told the jury.
The fight ended, and Welch thought everything would be OK. Then, six hours later, she woke up to the sound of Walraven throwing up. She called 911, and paramedics found him unconscious. He died the next day.
Today marked the beginning of Phillips' trial. He faces an involuntary manslaughter charge and 1-10 years in prison.
The dispute in the trial is about whether Phillips was justified in killing Walraven. Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Bert Poston told the jury during his opening argument this morning that Phillips fought Walraven for too long, well after Walraven lost his gun.
Phillips' attorney, Rex Abernathy, told the jury that Phillips had the right to kill Walraven last Christmas. He said Phillips thought Walraven was going to kill him if he didn't continue fighting.
"Nothing happened in this case until a gun was pulled," Abernathy told the jury. "This was a scared fight."
Welch's testimony shed light on the events of that day, and what led Walraven and Phillips to a fight that night. Phillips was drunk and argued with his wife earlier that day. That's why Walraven confronted him in Welch's dining room.
Still, she said her son was justified in killing her boyfriend of 13 years.
"He didn't want anything like that to happen to Tommy," she said. "He was just defending himself."
The trial is scheduled to begin again at 1 p.m. today.
This is a developing story. See tomorrow's Times Free Press for more information.
Contact Staff Writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6476.