Julia Phillips is led into the Cherokee County Courthouse by police officers Monday for a bond hearing. She is accused of killing her boyfriend, prominent attorney Melvin Roberts. (Ledger photo / TIM GULLA) A defense attorney for Julia Phillips argued Monday in Cherokee County General Sessions Court there was no way the Gaffney woman could have, or would have, had anything to do with the strangulation murder of her longtime boyfriend, Melvin Roberts.

“She was with Melvin for 10 years,” offered attorney Bobby Frederick. “She loves Melvin.”

Phillips, 66, of Overbrook Drive, was in court Monday seeking bond so she can be released from jail pending her trial after being charged in the Feb. 4 murder of Roberts. Though the crime occurred in York, the case was assigned to Circuit Judge Derham Cole, who typically covers Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, because Roberts was a prominent attorney in York County with many ties to the legal community there.

“Judge, you can’t go into her house and, anywhere you turn you see pictures of Melvin or her with Melvin,” Frederick told Judge Cole. “You can’t sit down and talk with her about this, or anything, without her expressing her love for Melvin, which you see in her eyes.”

The feelings, however, might not have been mutual.

16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett, who argued against bond, said the police investigation showed Roberts was in the process of breaking off his relationship with Phillips. He argued the ending of the relationship provided many motives.

Roberts took care of practically everything related to money when it came to Phillips and her downtown Gaffney cosmetics store, Julia’s, which Roberts owned, set up and stocked for his girlfriend.

And if Roberts died, investigators and prosecutors said his will stated Phillips would not only get the downtown Gaffney building that housed her store, but also a car of her choice.

And that financial security, the prosecutor said, was about to go away.

“Mr. Roberts’ decision to break off his relationship with her was financially catastrophic,” Brackett told Judge Cole.

“So she had a financial motive,” he added during the hearing. “Because if she was going to be left and the relationship terminated, she had every right to expect he was not going to leave her in the will.”

Cole did not issue any immediate decision on a bond for Phillips. Her attorney argued that neither Phillips nor her family were “rich” and asked the court to set bond at a reasonable amount. He argued she had no criminal record and extensive ties in Gaffney, and was not a flight risk.

On the chance that Cole was willing to set bond Monday, Frederick informed the court he had a bondsman at the ready to file the appropriate paperwork.

No decision had been reported as of Tuesday afternoon and Phillips remained jailed in York County.

During Monday’s bond hearing, prosecutors and investigators released many new details besides offering up the possibility of financial motives for the murder.

Brackett also acknowledged that prosecutors did not believe Phillips acted alone.

Police were called to Roberts home in York on Feb. 4 and found him dead outside the home. He had a head injury and a bullet hole through his collar that didn’t cause any injury, but it was a plastic zip tie fastened tightly around his neck that killed him.

“That’s a personal crime,” Brackett said of the strangulation by zip tie. “This is a crime where somebody had a personal grievance against him.”

Det. Sarah Robbins of the York Police Department relayed in court Phillips’ initial story that she was trying to take groceries into Roberts’ home when an unknown “black man” grabbed her from behind, demanded “Money, Money,” dragged her behind a brick wall roughly 60 feet away, and bound her with duct tape.

She claimed the same man subsequently attacked Roberts when he arrived home.

Robbins told the court Phillips did have duct tape loosely around her head, wrists and feet when police arrived but it was not too restraining. “The tape job appeared to be fabricated,” Robbins said.

During subsequent interviews, Robbins said Phillips’ description of the attacker changed several times. She couldn’t say whether he was black or white, for instance, and the description of his clothing changed from khaki pants to denim jeans.

Phillips could never describe the man’s facial features.

“She said the man had taped her up three times and threatened to kill her, but she added he was very soft spoken and she even said that he had a tender voice,” Robbins said.

Phillips told police she heard Roberts curse when the attacker went after him and then the sound of something like a pipe hitting the ground. She told police she then heard what sounded like a gunshot from a small gun.

Phillips told police she was eventually able to free herself with a key and called 911, though police determined from phone records that 911 was not the first call Phillips made. Brackett said Phillips first called her son, Hunter.

Besides the changing descriptions, investigators also noted that it was cold and rainy when Phillips claims she was grabbed from behind by the attacker, and thrown to the ground, yet her clothes were not soaked or muddy.

And SLED tests of her clothing would later show Phillips had to have been in close proximity when the gunshot was fired at Roberts, investigators claim, not 60 feet away behind a brick wall.

Bracket said police did find footprints in the woods behind Roberts’ home and a K-9 tracking team was able to pick up a fresh scent that they followed through the woods to a nearby roadway before the trail ended.

“So there was an individual there,” Brackett told the court. “We believe that individual was not the individual that Ms. Phillips was describing, but rather Ms. Phillips’ co-conspirator, and that’s one of our concerns (about releasing her on bond).”

Roberts’ sons, Ron and David, both asked Judge Cole to deny bond. David Roberts said his whole world changed the day his father was murdered.

Ron Roberts described how his father bankrolled Phillips, not only in her business but her personal life. “He provided her with a sense of status,” he said. She returned the favor, he argued, by calculating his murder.

Attorney Frederick argued Phillips was too small to have committed such a physical act as murder and he said it was logical her clothes weren’t soaked since she was placed in a heated car for close to an hour and a half after police arrived at the scene.

“Judge, from all indications, they (the police) investigated Julia and her son, Hunter, and they followed no other avenues and tried to make a case against them,” Frederick argued.

Cell phone records and witness statements proved Phillips’ son was not involved, Frederick argued.

“Julia was covered with bruises after this happened,” the attorney added. “She was assaulted. She is also a victim.”