Murder case goes to jury
Pathologist: Victim was still alive when fire erupted
By TIM GULLA Ledger Staff Writer tim@gaffneyledger.com

A Cherokee County jury will decide today if a Cowpens man is responsible for burning a man alive.

Jeremy Phillips, formerly of 128 Oakstone Road, has been on trial since Wednesday on charges of murder and arson in the Aug. 30, 2006, death of Juan Roman inside a Cowpens mobile home. He's one of three people charged in the crime.

Phillips took the stand in his own defense Thursday afternoon, denying he had anything to do with Roman's death.

Among other claims, Phillips said he was asleep at the time Roman's mobile home caught fire and that it was a fire truck that woke him from his slumber.

His denials of responsibility stood in stark contrast to the testimony of others, such as a longtime friend of his who said Phillips had bragged on Aug. 31, 2006, about what he had done.

"He (Phillips) told me how he put gasoline on (Roman)," testified Shannon Powell, who had been best friends with Phillips for about five years.

She described for the jury a conversation she had with Phillips the day after the fire, during which Phillips allegedly told her how he beat up Roman, put a PVC pipe into Roman's mouth and poured gasoline down his throat, igniting the gas with a cigarette or match.

"He was like bragging about it, like it was something he was proud of," she said.

She said, however, that she really didn't take Phillips seriously and that he always was a "kidder."

Hazel Willis, the mother of a codefendant in the case, implicated Phillips and her own son in the murder when she testified Wednesday afternoon. Hazel Willis was living in a trailer next to Juan Roman's at the time of the fire.

She said she saw blood on the clothing of both Phillips and her son, Jesse Willis, before the fire.

She believed her son had assaulted Juan because he had insulted her.

She said she "went to pieces" at the sight of the blood.

While admitting that she had been under the influence of alcohol that day, Hazel Willis said she clearly remembered Phillips rapping on her bedroom window later that night, and him telling her to turn out her lights because the fire trucks would soon be coming.

She claimed she then saw Phillips toss a jug or some other item into the kitchen window of Roman's trailer.

"Then it blowed," she said.

She said her son was standing only a few feet away.

Willis claimed Phillips subsequently threatened her to remain quiet and that she didn't go to police immediately because she was afraid.

Potential motives for Roman's death varied. Some trial testimony indicated that several of Roman's personal possessions were stolen from him, such as his cell phone, a new pair of boots he had purchased and a DVD player. A DVD player with his blood on it was found in another trailer.

Hazel Willis said she believed Roman was beaten because of a personal affront to her, while Shannon Powell said Phillips told her he did it because Roman was "(messing) with his girl."

Whatever the motive, a forensic scientist was sure Roman was still alive when the fire broke out.

Dr. Joel Sexton, a forensic pathologist in Newberry, said an autopsy of Roman showed that he had been subjected to an assault just before or at the time of his death. Two of his front teeth had been knocked out and a hemorrhage in his skull showed he had been subjected to a serious head injury, Sexton said.

Based on the levels of carbon monoxide in Roman's blood, along with other injuries to his throat, Sexton said it was his opinion that Roman was still alive when the fire was set and that it was the fire that killed him.

The remains of Roman's body were so badly burned that he had to be identified through dental records.

Attempting to poke holes in the prosecution's case, Phillips' defense attorney pointed out in court that Roman's remains were listed as positively identified in a September 2001 autopsy report, even though the dentist who made the determination didn't actually compare autopsy X-rays of Roman's teeth to dental office X-rays from Roman's former dentist until recently.

The dentist testified he had made his initial determination of identity based on written records of previous tooth extractions from Roman's mouth, not the actual X-rays.