Probate Court Judge Josh Queen hears legal arguments from attorney Charles Marchbanks Jr., left, during testimony by Gaffney Police Department Det. Sgt. Jott Blackwell, who is seated in the witness chair. Marchbanks is representing Julia Phillips and her son against a request to evict them from an Overbrook Drive home owned by the estate of Phillips' late husband, Edward Bryant Phillips. Without saying when he would issue a decision, Cherokee County Probate Court Judge Josh Queen took under advisement Wednesday a request to evict Julia Phillips and her son from an Overbook Drive home.

During an hour-long hearing, Queen heard a request from the daughters of Julia Phillips’ late husband, Edward Bryant Phillips, to dissolve their father’s legal trust.

According to legal paperwork and arguments in the Probate Court case, the Overbrook Drive home is owned by the Bryant Phillips Trust. Bryant Phillips’ last will and testament allowed Julia Phillips to live in the home until she died or re-married.

Julia Phillips, who stands accused of murder in connection with the Feb. 4 strangulation death of York attorney Melvin Roberts, is under court-ordered home detention at the Overbrook Drive home while awaiting trial. Eviction would cause problems with her bond conditions on the murder charge, and possibly could result in her re-incarceration, her attorney said during the hearing.

David Massey, an attorney for Bryant Phillips’ daughters, who are trustees of the estate, argued the court has the power to terminate the Bryant Phillips Trust based on “unanticipated consequences,” of which the estate claims there are many.

“Here, it can’t be believed that (Bryant Phillips) would have anticipated that Ms. Phillips would move out of the house, that she’d live with another man for 10 years, that she would be charged in the murder of that man, (that) she would allow her son to live in the house, that the son would conduct activities in that house that perhaps constitute a threat to the trust property and to the neighborhood,” Massey argued in court.

Lori Gaffney, one of Bryant Phillips daughters, testified that Julia Phillips only recently returned to the home after Melvin Roberts’ death. Previously, Gaffney said Phillips was living with Roberts and had even once told her to sell the home.

During the hearing, the estate called upon Gaffney Police Department Detective Sgt. Jott Blackwell to testify about the conditions of the interior of the home. Blackwell said he was inside the home on two occasions, the first of which occurred in July 2009 when local authorities were tracking leads on the serial killings that occurred here last year. Blackwell said in court that Phillips’ son, Hunter Stephens, was a “person of interest” in the investigation.

“I would describe (the interior) as disarray,” Blackwell said. “There were several milk jugs and ice cream cartons out. There were a lot of newspapers scattered everywhere. We found ammunition on the counter. The carpet was pretty badly stained. There was a cat in the house that, I guess, clawed two of the walls. Structurally I can’t say it was damaged, but cosmetically it was in disarray.”

Blackwell said he was back inside the home May 27 during the execution of a search warrant.

“As far as the cleanliness of it, nothing had changed there,” he said. “The carpet was still severely stained. Actually, we thought it was blood when we first went in, but come to find out there had been some paint that’s just been dripped all the way through the house.”

Under questioning by Phillips’ attorney, Blackwell confirmed that Hunter Stephens was not charged with anything following either of the two police visits.

Among the estate’s other contentions, it argues Bryant Phillips’ last will and testament did not provide for Julia Phillips’ son to live in the home.

Judge Queen heard arguments and testimony Wednesday solely to decide if a preliminary injunction should be granted to have Julia Phillips and Hunter Stephens removed from the home until the matter is fully decided.

Neither Julia Phillips nor her son appeared in court, though attorney Charles Marchbanks Jr., who is representing them in Probate Court, argued there was no reason for the court to have his clients removed. Not only does she have a right under Bryant Phillips’ last will and testament to be there, he argued, there was no evidence presented during Wednesday’s hearing that she was harming the estate’s property.

Marchbanks asked the judge to go visit the home before making up his mind, though it was unclear if Queen would do so.

Marchbanks filed with the court a sworn affidavit from Julia Phillips that she has maintained and updated the home “over and above reasonable care.” She also maintained in the court document, “That I believe I have the right to choose who I may invite into my private residence and who I may exclude from my private residence.”

Marchbanks further argued the court cannot consider Julia Phillips’ recent circumstances of being charged with murder, since she has the constitutional protections of being innocent until proven otherwise.

Given all of the attention and scrutiny Julia Phillips is receiving from police and the media, he added, “I submit to the court ... the property could not be better protected.”

Numerous television crews and media members from Rock Hill and Charlotte, N.C., were in attendance at Wednesday’s court proceedings.

The Probate Court hearing is just one of numerous twists in the case in recent days. On Monday, Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler had the body of Bryant Phillips exhumed from Oakland Cemetery in Gaffney so he could take a new look at Bryant Phillips’ death in June 1999.

Authorities aren’t saying what they’re looking for, though samples were sent for testing following a forensic autopsy.