A lawyer for Julia Phillips, the Gaffney woman recently charged with murdering her longtime boyfriend in York, is claiming in recently filed Probate Court documents that an effort to have her evicted from an Overbrook Drive home boils down to “unadulterated financial gain” for her step-daughters.

Last month, Probate Court Judge Josh Queen granted a request by the estate of Bryant Phillips for a temporary injunction against Phillips. The decision meant that Phillips had to vacate a home at 701 Overbrook Drive that is owned by the trust of her late husband and which is administered by her stepdaughters Angela Shaheen and Lori Gaffney.

Phillips’ lawyer, Attorney Charles Marchbanks Jr., immediately filed a request for re-consideration and recently filed a formal response to the estate’s lawsuit for eviction, challenging the estate’s motives and filing a countersuit.

In the countersuit, Marchbanks is asking on Phillips’ behalf that Gaffney and Shaheen be removed as trustees of Bryant Phillips’ estate due to an alleged abuse of the legal process and an alleged breach of duty to the estate’s primary beneficiary — Phillips herself.

“The stepdaughters have stated their motive in this case is to ensure the value of the trust assets,” Marchbanks wrote. “However, terminating the rights of their own beneficiary on evidence that amounts largely to gossip when they, as trustees and beneficiaries of a possible remainder, alarmingly displays their pure financial interests in the claim.”

All sides are scheduled to be back in court on Aug. 2 at 2 p.m., at which time Queen is supposed to hear Phillips’ appeal of his decision to evict her.

Phillips is charged in York County with murder in connection with the Feb. 4 strangulation death of her longtime boyfriend, York attorney Melvin Roberts. She was granted bond on the murder charge and was ordered to remain under home confinement at 701 Overbrook Drive in Gaffney while she awaits trial.

According to court records, Bryant Phillips, who died in June 1999, stated in his will that Phillips could live in the home until she died or remarried.

Shortly after Phillips’ arrest on the murder charge, however, her step-daughters filed the legal action in Probate Court to have her removed from the home. During a hearing for a preliminary injunction, they cited concerns that the home was not being maintained and presented testimony from a Gaffney Police Department detective about the condition of the interior, which was described as in disarray.

They also sought the removal of Julia Phillips’ son, Hunter Stephens, from the home, arguing that their father never gave Stephens permission to live there.

Judge Queen granted the requests for a temporary injunction, finding that the estate would be irreparably harmed if an injunction was not granted. The order gave Phillips and her son 10 days to vacate the home, though Circuit Court Judge Derham Cole, who granted Phillips’ bond on the murder charge, would have to approve of her removal before the Probate Court order was enforceable.