WILMINGTON – Deputy Attorneys General in the Department of Justice secure a number of important convictions, sentencings and other court rulings each week. The Department of Justice will send out recaps of key cases.  Here are the highlights from the week ending Friday, Dec. 5.

• After securing convictions the prior week against Otis Phillips, 38 of Wilmington, first-degree murder, manslaughter, gang participation possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and a number of additional charges in the July 12 fatal shootings at Eden Park, Deputy Attorneys General John Downs, Ipek Medford and Periann Doko secured a 12-0 jury recommendation for capital punishment in the penalty phrase.  Downs, Medford and Doko also secured convictions against co-defendant Jeffrey Phillips, 23 of Wilmington, on first-degree murder, manslaughter, gang participation possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and a number of additional charges. Jeffrey Phillips’ penalty phase began Monday.

• In a case that will take a violent criminal off of Wilmington’s streets, Deputy Attorney General Mark Denney, who leads the DOJ’s Wilmington Trial Unit, secured a 20-year sentence for Rakeem Mills, 26, for possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. Mills has multiple state and federal convictions for violent crimes. He was convicted in a trial by jury in September of this year for firing a handgun repeatedly in broad daylight at unknown passengers in a car.  Mills was on probation and sentenced as a habitual offender.   His co-defendant, Blayton Palmer, is still pending.

• Deputy Attorney General Jaime McCloskey secured a 10-year sentence against Anthony Dale on a possession of a firearm by a person prohibited charge. Dale was arrested on Jan. 31 after being after fleeing from New Castle County Police during a traffic stop.  Officers found a loaded handgun on the driver’s side floor board.  Dale was already out on bail at this time on a previous firearms charge and had prior convictions for drug dealing offenses, making him a person prohibited from possessing a firearm. He would eventually be tried on that first firearms charge by Deputy Attorneys General Nicholas Wynn and Periann Doko and be convicted, receiving a 4-year prison sentence. So, between the sentence McCloskey secured last week for the January 2014 offense and the sentence secured by Wynn and Doko, this repeat violent offender will be incarcerated for a total of 14 years.
• Deputy Attorney General John Taylor secured an 8-year prison sentence against Clifton Lloyd, 28 of Middletown, who had been convicted of second-degree burglary for a break-in in Middletown. Lloyd was sentenced under Delaware’s habitual offender statute because of prior convictions.

• Deputy Attorney General Barzilai Axelrod secured a guilty plea from Terrell Davis, 44 of Wilmington, to heroin dealing and aggravated possession of heroin, which will result in Davis being sentenced as a Habitual Offender with mandatory incarceration.  The New Castle County Police Department investigated Davis, a.k.a. “Rell,” for dealing heroin in the area of Philadelphia Pike and Holly Oak Road.  A search warrant was executed on his home and Davis was taken into custody.  Police recovered 356 baggies of heroin, drug paraphernalia, marijuana, illegally possessed prescription drugs, and in excess of $7,000 of United States Currency.  The defendant has previously been convicted of felony drug charges.

• In a another case that will carry sentencing under Delaware’s habitual offender statute, Deputy Attorney General Zach Rosen secured a guilty plea to a charge of dealing morphine from Clifton Waller, 63 of Wilmington, Delaware.  This case resulted from an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration in which DEA officers observed Waller delivering 20 morphine pills to another subject in Wilmington.  The offense  is a Class C Violent Felony.
• Attorneys in the Department of Justice’s Family Division  last week collected more than $46,000 in child support arrears from the execution of sequestration orders they had previously filed against three non-custodial parents.   This money was due to six different custodial parents and either was already sent to the custodial parents this week or will be sent to them shortly. A sequestration order allows the State to seize some or all of a large lump sum payment received by a non-custodial parent who owes a significant amount of child support.

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