It may have taken two more days than she and her family planned, but a Gaffney woman charged in connection with the Feb. 4 murder of her boyfriend in York was released from custody Saturday afternoon.

Julia Phillips, 66, of Overbrook Drive, posted a $75,000 bond in York County on Thursday afternoon so she could be freed pending her trial on a charge that she murdered Melvin Roberts, a prominent York attorney she dated for 10 years.

Instead of being released after posting bond on the murder charge in York, however, Phillips was held for Gaffney police until they could bring her back to Gaffney on an unrelated charge of breach of trust.

Phillips is accused in an arrest warrant by the Gaffney Police Department of taking $1,200 in rent payments belonging to Roberts Realty Company, which was owned by Melvin Roberts, for the rental of one of the company’s apartments on East Robinson Street.

In an incident report, Det. Jonathan Blackwell of the Gaffney Police Department wrote that the tenant of the apartment in question told police he had moved into the apartment in October 2009 and was instructed to pay his rent in cash to Phillips. Three rental payments between Nov. 17, 2009, and Jan. 17, 2010, allegedly went straight to Phillips.

Phillips was transported from York to Cherokee County late Thursday, after press time for Friday’s edition of The Gaffney Ledger, and she appeared before Gaffney Municipal Court Judge Wade Weatherford on Friday morning for a bond hearing on the breach of trust charge.

Weatherford, however, did not wind up setting bond Friday morning.

After Phillips told Weatherford she was represented by an attorney and wanted the chance to talk with him before proceeding with the Friday morning bond hearing, Weatherford ended up continuing the bond hearing to a later date.

One of Roberts’ sons asked Weatherford to make sure Phillips remained jailed until then.

Weatherford replied that, with no bond set on the breach of trust charge, Phillips had no choice but to be sent back to the Cherokee County Detention Center.

On Saturday, a jail official confirmed, Phillips went back before a Gaffney Municipal Court judge and was released Saturday afternoon after posting bond on the breach of trust charge, which was set at $5,000.

A felony breach of trust charge carries up to $10,000 in fines and a maximum of five years in jail, Weatherford said Friday.

Circuit Court Judge Derham Cole, who set bond on the murder charge, had previously laid down numerous rules if Phillips posted bond on the murder charge. Phillips can’t leave her home in Cherokee County except for very specific reasons, such as for church or meeting with her lawyer, and she must be under electronic monitoring so her whereabouts can be tracked.

Phillips, through her attorney, has denied any responsibility for Roberts’ murder. She claimed she and Roberts were attacked by an unknown man at Roberts home in York on Feb. 4 and that she also was a victim in the horrific crime.

Police and York County prosecutors contend Roberts’ death by strangulation with a zip tie was a “personal crime” and that Roberts was in the process of ending his relationship with Phillips when he was killed. Phillips, they argued, stood to inherit a downtown Gaffney building that houses the cosmetics store she operated, as well as a car of her choice, according to Roberts’ will.