Florida - A jury found a 15-year-old boy guilty of first degree murder yesterday in the brutal killing of an 8-year-old neighbour whose body was found under his bed.
Jurors deliberated little more than two hours before finding Joshua Earl Patrick Phillips guilty of the November 3rd, 1998 murder of Maddie Clifton, who was stabbed and beaten with a baseball bat.
Phillips, who was 14 at the time of the killing, was accused of hitting the girl with a baseball bat, cutting her throat and repeatedly stabbing her with a knife and then taping her body under his waterbed at his Jacksonville home in northeast Florida.
Conviction carries an automatic sentence of life in prison. Sentencing was set for August 12th.