PHILLIPS A contentious dispute in Cherokee County Probate Court involving a woman accused of murdering her boyfriend and step-daughters who want her kicked out of an estate-owned home appears to be over.

Now, it seems, the dispute is moving to a higher level.

In an Aug. 25 order filed Thursday, Cherokee County Probate Court Judge Josh Queen forwarded an estatefiled lawsuit against Julia Phillips to the Court of Common Pleas.

While the dispute was expected to end up in the Court of Common Pleas to begin with as a result of appeal, no official appeal of any Probate Court decision in the case has been filed yet, according to court records.

Queen noted in his Aug. 25 order that the Probate Court “upon motion of a party, or the Court on its own motion, may remove certain actions to the Court of Common Pleas.”

Julia Phillips, 66, of Overbrook Drive, who currently is facing a murder charge in York County in connection with the February strangulation death of her longtime boyfriend, attorney Melvin Roberts, was sued by the estate of her late husband, Edward Bryant Phillips, in Cherokee County Probate Court following her arrest.

QUEEN The estate, which is represented by Phillips’ step-daughters, Angela Shaheen and Lori Gaffney, wants Julia Phillips removed from the home she once shared with Bryant Phillips. The home still is owned by a trust established by Bryant Phillips’ last will and testament, though the last will and testament gave Julia Phillips the right to live there until she died or remarried.

The estate has argued she abandoned the home by living with Melvin Roberts for years, that she has failed to maintain the estateowned property, and that Bryant Phillips could never have foreseen the incidents of the past few months when he made his will.

On June 18, Judge Queen granted a preliminary injunction that ordered Julia Phillips and her son, Hunter Stephens, to leave the Overbrook Drive home, finding that their removal was necessary for the protection of trust property.

Phillips’ lawyer, Charles Marchbanks Jr., subsequently asked Queen to reconsider that ruling and Queen responded following another hearing by reaffirming his decision on the preliminary injunction.

Neither an attorney for the estate of Bryant Phillips, nor Julia Phillips’ attorney, could be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.