W.Va. woman pleads guilty in Fayette drug case that prompted chase, suicide

Feb. 27--A West Virginia woman who fired a handgun at a state police car during a high-speed chase that ended in a lengthy standoff and her companion's suicide could serve up to 14 years in prison.

Jessica Lynn Phillips, 28, of Buckhannon, on Thursday entered guilty pleas to attempted homicide, aggravated assault and a long list of other charges before President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. In addition, Phillips pleaded guilty to assaulting a corrections officer at the Fayette County Prison.

In exchange for the guilty pleas, Assistant District Attorney Doug Sepic said prosecutors are recommending a sentence of seven to 14 years.

During a plea hearing, Phillips told Wagner she was the one who fired a .380-caliber handgun at a pursuing patrol car as she and her fiance, the late Donald Brown, fled in a pickup truck from a camp site along the Youghiogheny River in Dunbar Township.

Phillips said she was trying to hit the car's tires to disable the vehicle.

Sentencing is set for 9:30 a.m.March 7 before Wagner.

Police said Phillips and Brown, 53, fled the secluded area on Sept. 27 when a state ranger found them with a suspected mobile meth lab.

The pair allegedly led state troopers on a chase south into North Union Township -- firing shots out a rear sliding window on their pickup -- before the truck crashed into a North Gallatin Avenue home.

They broke into a nearby home on Center Avenue. Phillips quickly surrendered. Troopers tried to reach Brown for about nine hours until they found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot about 9 p.m.

During a preliminary hearing earlier this month, Ranger Kip Hursh of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources testified he found the two at 11:45 a.m. camped at Wheeler Bottom. They said they were homeless.

Hursh testified he was going to inspect a trailer when the two overheard a radio transmission indicating troopers were headed to the area. The pair fled with Brown at the wheel.

Trooper Nathan Swink testified he followed the truck at speeds up to at least 80 mph along West Crawford Avenue from the Sheetz in Connellsville to North Gallatin Avenue, where the truck wrecked. As the truck passed Sherwood's Bar in Dunbar Township, Swink said, he saw the silhouette of a person holding a handgun.

"I heard a distinct sound that I immediately recognized as sounds like gunshots," Swink testified. He said he "felt like these people were dangerous, and they were shooting at me."

Swink feared another motorist might be hit.

Trooper Tonya Wroble testified she and another trooper used patrol cars to block Bute Road. But she was forced to move her car when the fast-moving truck drove between the police cars, missing them by inches.

Swink testified that after the truck crashed, he discovered the driver's side tire of his patrol car had gone flat. A bullet fragment from a .380-caliber weapon was discovered in the tire, testified Trooper Joseph Panepinto.

Cpl. Dennis Ulery of the state police Clandestine Laboratory Response Team testified drain opener, pseudoephedrine tablets, sodium hydroxide, lithium metal and other chemicals discovered at Wheeler Bottom are used to cook meth.

"Based on the ingredients I saw there ... it was an active, one-pot lab," Ulery testified.

Police found funnels, clear tubing, coffee filter packages and fluid-filled bottles, testified Panepinto. In the truck, police found multiple firearms, including a sawed-off shotgun and three stolen handguns.

Panepinto said damages to the Center Avenue house, where police lobbed tear gas through windows and used a robot to break down the front door, amounted to $67,675.

Homeowner Norma Sherlock, 85, was not home when Brown and Phillips forced their way inside, police said.

The house reeked of tear gas.

"The fumes were so bad," Sherlock said. "The house was a wreck."

Sherlock said her insurance company paid for her to stay in a hotel for three months while her home was repaired.

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