On this day set aside for a day celebrating love, one family is mourning the loss of their murdered son, while another family is mourning the loss of freedom for the accused. It was a case of one woman: two men.
Around 7:20 p.m. on Sunday, February 13, the night before Valentine’s Day, a love triangle ended fatally for 22-year-old Darwin “Mu-Mu” Phillips.
The son of the 43-year-old accused murderer, Vincent Tillett, told us that he blames his father’s common-law-wife, Denise Phillips, 28, for the tragedy. According to Tillett, his stepmother (no blood relation to the deceased, Darwin Phillips), is mother to his father’s two younger children, both under 4.
Denise recently gave birth to a baby girl for Darwin Phillips. The infant had been living with Denise and Vincent Tillett, who had been together for about five years. This was the same residence where Darwin Phillips was fatally stabbed last night.
The accused’s son, who is named like his father, told us that violence has been in the brewing for some time now: arguments between the two men had escalated over a period of a couple of months, to the point where it reached boiling point.
An eyewitness to the murder told us this morning, “All I saw was the man (the accused) come home and two of them (Phillips and the accused) get inna wah argument and the bally stab him and he (Phillips) just run outa the yard and drop right down there on the street. She (Denise) watch the young boy pan the ground and neva even gawn help ah. Look pan da love triangle deh, but yu know something mi wah happen, because she have two ah di man da di house at di same time.”
The police report said that Darwin Phillips was inside Denise’s house at #170 Antelope Street Extension around 7:20 p.m. Darwin was seated in the living room area when the accused returned to the home with his (the accused) and Denise’s two children.
Police said that the accused walked into the kitchen and then into the living room where Phillips was seated. This is when the accused inflicted one fatal stab to Phillips’ left upper-chest area. The victim was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, but succumbed to the injury at 7:30 p.m.
According to the accused’s son, his father had just left from the home with his two children to purchase something, and upon returning found Phillips at his residence.
Tillett Junior said, “He just took them [the two children] to buy or something; he lives here [at the same residence] but then she [Denise] still has di bally [Phillips] di come here and then she would let him come inside of the house when my pa is in there. It looks like some argument happen and thing start right there.”.”
Tillett Junior told us that things have been escalating between the two men for a while now. Recently the deceased, about a month ago, allegedly caused damages to the windshield of the accused’s vehicle.
Tillett Junior told us that after he heard about the murder last night, “When I heard I started to cry like it was me who killed somebody; My pa [the accused] talk to me more than one time [about the ongoing disputes between himself and Phillips] and told me that he gawn make a report more than one time to the police.”.”
And so, an apparent love triangle ends fatally for one of the men. The police had reported that the accused had fled the scene, but police press officer, Sergeant Fitzroy Yearwood, confirmed to us that the accused has since, as of today, handed himself in to police.
We asked Tillett Junior if he could place the blame on anyone for this murder, who it would be, to which he replied, “Denise.”
We tried speaking with the deceased Phillips’ family, but they declined an interview with us.