Murder and suicide seemed contrary to everything people knew about Yolanda Michelle Phillips.
She was a loving single mother of two, an independent woman with an entrepreneurial spirit and a need to succeed. She was vivacious, talented and attractive. Her positive attitude was infectious.
She easily cultivated friends and clients. She had fire and energy.
That's how friends and colleagues remembered her.
But a dark side erupted not long after Phillips moved into a new home with her two daughters in western Chesterfield County. On July 10, during an apparent fit of despair, Phillips, 36, fatally shot her children with a .38-caliber revolver before turning the gun on herself.
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Investigators still don't know where she got the gun. She left a detailed suicide letter that police say at least partly explained her actions.
"She spelled it out," said Chesterfield police Capt. Karl Leonard.
Personally and professionally, Phillips had taken a big blow, friends and associates say. She had been working for a man she was dating, but both relationships ended abruptly in June -- and not on her terms.
The three deaths shook those close to her.
"I was dumbfounded," said Dr. John M. Kellum, who in recent years developed a friendship and professional camaraderie with Phillips when she served as his executive secretary in the surgery department at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical campus. "I'm totally flummoxed by the idea that she killed her- self and her children."
"I couldn't even process it" upon hearing the news, he added. "I never saw that part of her personality."
Kellum said his wife, Anne, who also had grown close to Phillips, "just went black" after learning what happened. She initially believed that Phillips and her daughters 13-year-old Chamara Phillips, a rising eighth-grader at Manchester Middle School, and 4-year-old Chamaya Perry -- had all been murdered.
"She loved those girls as much as she loved life," Anne Kellum wrote in an e-mail to The Times-Dispatch. "She was a blessing and a gift to many, including my husband's patients, who adored her."
Even Phillips' more recent acquaintances were charmed.
"Her energy, her smile, her spirituality -- just everything about her was just so intense," recalled Latishia Hawkins, who hired Phillips to plan her Aug. 20 wedding. "Everybody who came in contact with her that knew me was like, 'Oh my God, Yolanda is great. I'm so glad that you met her, she's wonderful, she's such a sweetheart, always smiling.'"
Hawkins said she and Phillips soon developed a friendship.
"I enjoyed talking to her and getting e-mails from her," she said. "I felt really close to her."
That's why it was all the more stunning to learn how she died, Hawkins said. "It's like this person you're hearing about on the news is someone totally different."
So what happened?
What caused a seemingly upbeat woman with two lovely daughters and strong family support to suddenly fall into the depths of suicidal despair?
Some of those answers are included in a letter investigators found in her home. She "explained a lot of things," said Leonard, and offered some clues as to "why she was doing it."
As a matter of policy, police do not release copies of suicide notes or share their specific content -- even to family members, unless they demand to see it. Yolanda's mother, Phyllis Hatcher, who discovered the bodies, obtained a copy but declined to discuss the deaths.
"I just want to put it to rest and let it go," Hatcher said.
When asked generally about the note, Leonard said: "I think there were a lot of things going on in her life, [and] maybe a lot of things weren't going right for her. There wasn't just one thing. It was a combination of things -- personally [and] professionally."
Several of Phillips' friends noted that she experienced two major upheavals -- one personal, one professional -- within several weeks of her death.
After leaving VCU's surgery department, Phillips went to work as a medical assistant to a Richmond doctor with whom she was romantically involved. The doctor ended the personal relationship in June, and, police said, Phillips was let go from her job about a week later.
"She really wanted to be this doctor's wife," Anne Kellum said.
But Phillips was dismayed to find out recently that the doctor had been seeing another woman, friends say. His new girlfriend "sent a big bouquet of roses to the office" on June 24 for the doctor's upcoming birthday, a friend said.
"She looked at the card and saw it was from [the girlfriend]," the friend said. "She got really upset."
Repeated calls by The Times-Dispatch and two faxed letters seeking comment from the doctor went unanswered.
In her last e-mail to Anne Kellum, Phillips expressed excitement about moving into a new rental home in Chesterfield with her daughters and taking a job as a medical assistant professionally a step down for her with the doctor she had been dating for more than a year, friends said.
Anne Kellum said she warned Phillips about "putting all your eggs in one basket" by investing both her personal and professional life in one man. Phillips didn't respond.
"Yolanda was savvy about starting a business and running an office, and she was very creative and imaginative," Anne Kellum said. "But she wasn't what I'd call 'street smart.' If she wanted to believe in something or believe in someone, she did.
"She really wanted to marry this guy and she was pursuing him," she added. "And I think . . . the longer she worked at that without a whole lot of success, I think she did become unstable. I mean, she had it all invested in him."'
Phillips earned her stripes in the business world as executive secretary for four years to John Kellum, a general surgeon and VCU professor who specializes in gastric bypass surgery.
"Yolanda was a very good secretary to me, probably one of the best I ever had," he said. "She was very flamboyant, personalitywise. But I would say, conservatively speaking, that she probably increased my practice 30 percent because she was just so good with patients. They loved her."
Phillips thought so much of John Kellum that when her father died several years ago, she gave him two of her dad's winter coats. "That was a big thing for her," John Kellum said. "It kind of brought tears to my eyes. She was close to her father, and I knew how much this meant to her."
John Kellum kept the coats and still wears them.
"She and I had a little tiff, like doctors and secretaries sometimes do, and I was short with her on one occasion and she was going to quit," John Kellum recalled. "I met with her and told her I was sorry, begging her to stay. And she said, 'Well, I guess if I thought enough of you to give you my father's coats, I should give you another chance.'
"It was that kind of relationship."
But last fall, Phillips left under a cloud.
She was accused of doing work for her private business -- a wedding-planning and catering service while on the job at John Kellum's office.
"She got into a little trouble about that, but I supported her," John Kellum said. "I did my best to keep her at VCU because she was so valuable to my practice."
Angry about the accusations, Phillips quit. John Kellum begged her to reconsider, but "she had made some enemies in the upper hierarchy of the department, and they refused to let her rescind her letter of resignation," he said without elaborating.
She then briefly worked for another doctor before going to work for the doctor she hoped to marry. In less than a year, she had dropped in position from executive secretary to medical assistant. "She was going down the ladder," Anne Kellum said.
After Phillips was fired in late June, she wasn't able to find another job and was under some financial pressure, friends say. She still operated the wedding-planning business, but that apparently didn't generate enough income to fully support her and her daughters.
However, Phillips received substantial child-support payments said to total about $2,000 a month or more -- from the fathers of her two children, one friend said.
"Yolanda wasn't a single mother in the sense that she had no support system," Anne Kellum said, "because her mother helped her with the kids and their fathers were involved. So intellectually she couldn't have concluded that if she died, there was nobody to take care of them."
Hawkins noticed a dramatic downturn in Phillips' demeanor on June 21, when Phillips attended a music rehearsal for Hawkins' upcoming wedding. Phillips gave Hawkins a cursory hug but kept largely to herself at the church, sitting alone in a pew and "kind of staring off into space."
"She was not the Yolanda I knew, not at all," Hawkins said. "I knew something was wrong. Everything was down."
Three days later, Hawkins said, Phillips sent her an e-mail about the breakup of her relationship and asked if Hawkins knew any single men. "I never responded to that e-mail."
Phillips apparently never confided in family members about her feelings of despair. She took her daughters to a park for ice cream the day before the killings, giving no indication of a problem.
Beyond Phillips' suicide, friends have agonized over her decision to take her children's lives.
"Maybe she had decided that they didn't need to live in the despair they would feel with her dead," Anne Kellum said. "What she did is such a departure from the person I've known. I can't explain it."
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com
This story can be found at: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?
This is an article that was featured on EurWeb...Very interesting commentary, and very interesting comments followed.By Morris O'Kelly
(August 16, 2005)
In closing, I’m willing to make everyone a bet. A sad, pitiful bet, I might add. I’m willing to bet anyone, any amount of money that at least FIVE more prominent rappers will be arrested and/or sent to jail before the end of 2005.
- Mo’Kelly 7.12.05
Well, THAT sure didn’t take long.
A federal jury convicted rapper Tab “Turk” Virgil of three felony charges on August 9. Virgil was convicted of being a felon with a handgun, a fugitive with a handgun and a drug addict with a handgun.
Three different felony charges, all tied to possession of a handgun. So much for that rap career. See you in 7-10.
Lloyd Banks and Young Buck were arrested after police allegedly found weapons in a van carrying the rappers and 11 other people as they were leaving the Anger Management 3 tour in New York on August 9th. Mind you, this is the same Young Buck charged with stabbing a man at the Vibe Awards.
Georgia Rapper Gucci Mane, aka Radric Davis was arrested and charged with aggravated assault en route to a performance at a Miami club on July 16th.
According to authorities in Queens, DMX broke the terms of a plea deal struck after a December 2004 arrest. On August 8th, the rapper was formally charged and now faces up to a year in jail.
As I said…THAT sure didn’t take long. It took about 30 days altogether to reach my quota. And lookie here…we still have the rest of August and all of September through December to watch more Black men die and go to jail. Where are all the hip-hop apologists now? Where are all the people who lambaste me as simply a ‘hip-hop hater’ and not someone in support of accountability and responsibility? Where are all the excuses that absolve the entertainers and the messages they send?
I happen to be a fan of law-abiding citizens…and I’m not ashamed to say it. I happen to be appreciative of people who manage to avoid embarrassing African-Americans by lengthening their rap sheets…no pun intended. But that’s not the primary reason for writing this column on this occasion. I’m curious to know what ‘our’ collective preoccupation with guns happens to be. Why is there this predilection to carry guns in ‘our’ communities?
We’re not defending ourselves against ‘The Man’ or any of his associated racist tenets. We’re not protecting ourselves and our families…not if we’re honest with each other. We’re not talking about legal, registered guns in our houses that we can use in case of an intruder. No, I’m not talking about ‘those’ guns. I’m talking about all the unregistered, kept under the seat, in our pants, that we have when we go to parties, concerts or just out grocery shopping. I’m talking about ‘those’ guns. I’m talking about the guns that do nothing to make us ‘safer’ and likely increase our danger.
A gun didn’t stop Tupac from getting filled with bullets…on either occasion. It didn’t protect the Notorious B.I.G. It didn’t protect 50 Cent from getting shot nine times…something he’s ‘proud’ of in regards to his history. It didn’t keep Lil’ Kim out of jail…in fact it led to her imprisonment. It’s the reason C-Murder is in jail, it’s the reason Beanie Sigel spent a year in jail prior to his recent release. It’s specifically the reason why Master P, Silkk da Shocker, Lloyd Banks and Young Buck have been arrested most recently.
It is the single overriding reason why African-American men are in jail or dead. Guns aren’t saving anybody’s lives; merely ruining them. Choices save lives. Good choices.
I’ve never shot a gun. I’ve never held a gun. I don’t suspect that either will change in the future. I work in South Central Los Angeles and also tutor children in that same area. My life will not be saved by a gun…one that I can by no legal means carry. My life will be saved by making good choices and sensible acquaintances in terms of people in which I associate and places I frequent.
Making violent lifestyle choices ensures violent and usually prison-like consequences. Granted, we can’t control the world around us and I am as likely as the next person to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Tomorrow is not promised. But yet and still, I’m not going to knowingly increase those odds against me.
I’m neither a pacifist nor a punk. I will fight to protect myself and my loved ones at a moment’s notice. It’s that same love and protection that gives me enough clarity to understand that if I’m either dead or in jail…
I can do neither.
As a person who has studied martial arts for more than 15 years, I’ve learned three important ways to protect myself…and little of it has to do with fighting. It has to do with managing emotions, making good choices and walking away. When a person understands that choices save lives, he/she implicitly understands that there are consequences to the wrong ones. A bulletproof car will not protect 50 Cent, just better choices.
I haven’t avoided jail because I was ‘lucky.’ I’ve avoided jail because I value my freedom and life over all else and make my choices accordingly. It ’s pretty damn difficult to send Mo’Kelly to jail on drug or gun charges when he uses neither. The correlation is not by coincidence.
If you feel ‘the need’ to make your car bulletproof…then you need to redress your choices. And don’t tell me that because 50 Cent is a ‘star’ he is more of a target. Oprah Winfrey can buy him out 100 times over and she manages to travel without an armed entourage or bulletproofing her vehicles.
Choices.
If someone is liable to shoot you wherever you go; then that’s proof positive you’re not living right. This isn’t rocket science, it’s simply common sense. We’re not talking about world leaders who might be assassinated to sway the balance of world power. We’re talking about random
black men of varying and relatively minor socioeconomic status. There is an ever-growing inability for Black men to coexist with other Black men…coupled with an insane preference for handguns as a means to “prevent” or solve problems.
Where did this come from and how do we change it? A gun is never a good idea…unless you’re a cop and even then I’m still very concerned about its use in terms of Black people.
Guns led to the ridiculous shootouts at radio stations…for no reason. They lead to the destruction of the shooter and the person in the shooter’s sights. If you think a gun “solves” your problem or protects you from greater harm…you are the fool. Choices will save your life and nothing else.
I will finish this piece the same way I started, with the same bet. I wonder if it will only take another 30 days before 5 more rappers are put in jail…mostly on gun-related charges.
In closing, I’m willing to make everyone a bet. A sad, pitiful bet, I might add. I’m willing to bet anyone, any amount of money that at least FIVE more prominent rappers will be arrested and/or sent to jail before the end of 2005.
Morris W. O’Kelly is a Producer/Editor of the Tavis Smiley Show on Public Radio International. The content of the Mo’Kelly Report reflects the views of the writer only and are neither specifically shared nor implicitly endorsed by The Smiley Group, Inc. or associated companies. He can be reached at dark.gable@sbcglobal.net and welcomes all commentary.
COMMENTS:
Name: Willie1986 Comment: I knew the attack would soon be back on, nice job Mo' Kelly. Everything you said is a repeat of your past columns. It's ashame you have to attack and smear these rappers name like there's no tommorrow. Half of the rappers you mentioned are singled out by the hip-hop police, I bet you didn't know that. These guys follow these rappers around waiting for something to arrest them for. Corey Miller is a victim of the system, I don't understand why you keep attacking him. You need to get your facts straight and do your research because if do some research you would know that the man is innocent.
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Name: Onyx Comment: Morris, Great article! It's a shame that anyone would excuse the behavior of ignorance and criminality. These rappers are the victims of their own poor choices and actions, not the systems. The police could follow me around all day long and be bored as hell, cause I don't do drugs, carry illegal weapons, act a fool or committ criminal acts. If you know someone is out to get you, do right. As far as I'm concern, you can't write about this enough. As long as the problem exists, you should write and call them out. Maybe, just maybe your stories will help enlighten and educate. I appreciate you putting them on blast, they deserve and have earned the blast.
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Name: Bertie Comment: I'm sorry--I have little sympathy for rappers screaming about the hip-hop police when 99% of what they rhyme about and 99% of their image is that of a criminal. If you claim it--don't get mad when the cops suspect you of it and lock your dumb azz up. Hip hop police or not--if you ride around with unregistered guns and drugs and publically claim that you do so on records---your going to jail
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Name: Gemami Comment: Willie1986, let's assume you are totally correct, I have a question. Knowing that the police are targeting rappers, how do you explain a know felony, which a few of these artists are, carrying a gun, being involved in shootings, driving with suspensed licenses and/or plates and even smoking marijuana? As Mo said there is no reason for a rapper to wear bullet proof vest, bullet proof their cars and carry guns as if they are in a war zone. They are the product of their own doings. But I will say, that something like Murder Inc. investigation is federally motivated, but that bigger than some punk not leaving the streets alone.
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Name: MorrisOKelly Comment: The only thing that is a 'repeat' of my past columns is that rappers keep getting arrested. Corey Miller I guess didn't murder anybody, I guess I didn't get that fact straight? "New Orleans gangsta rapper Corey Miller, better known as C-Murder, the younger brother of music artist Master P, was booked Friday with second-degree murder in the shooting death of an Avondale teen in a Harvey nightclub. He's accused of shooting Steve Thomas, 16, after the two got into an argument in the club. C-Murder reportedly killed the teen with a single gunshot wound to the chest. " Uh Willie...did the police fabricate this story? Did the police set some huge conspiracy in motion to fabricate these events and place C-Murder at the scene with a gun? What 'facts' are you talking about? Explain Willie? You put it out there, now back it up.
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Name: MorrisOKelly Comment: And HOW ARE RAPPERS SINGLED OUT BY POLICE?!!!! IT'S ILLEGAL TO CARRY GUNS. HOW ARE THEY BEING 'SINGLED' OUT?!!! Idiots!!!
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Name: MorrisOKelly Comment: Willie...you are my case in point. How can you even fix your lips to accuse me of 'smearing' a rapper's name? You are exceptionally misled if you think the police, FBI or whomever actually thinks they are out to 'tarnish' the image of Hip-Hop. Rappers are NOT that important. You may place that amount of importance on them, but surely they aren't. I didn't fabricate their arrests, they WERE arrested. They stop getting arrested, I stop writing about it. See how simple that is. I'm appalled that you even would suggest that police follow them around waiting for a reason to arrest them (true or not) and then excuse rappers when they willingly give a reason to get arrested! That's what I'm talking about...no accountability. Why in the hell would you carry around unregistered guns if you know the police are targeting you?! Exactly, because they're idiots...and you are the bigger fool to not realize it. Thanks again for reading...be sure to email it to all of your Hip-Hop friends who use guns.
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Name: Lolly Comment: This is awfully funny. Ahhh, personal responsibility, we hardly knew ye! :o) Uh, Willie? Might I ask a somewhat delicate question? Let's azzume you are correct in your stance that the "hip hop police" are watching and waiting for rappers to do something so they can get arrested. Uhm, if you aren't doing anything wrong, then the police would be waiting an awfully long time, don't you think? I am not a person to tell you conspiracies don't exist because they do! Police are foul (more often than not) and they DO fabricate evidence quite often in attempts to snag folk for no reason. I don't deny it. However, there is a reason someone like oh, say Will Smith and/or Jeff Townsend (DJ Jazzy Jeff) were never tossed in jail, harassed and all that. Because no matter how long you follow them around, they won't do stupid stuff. Yeah, many of us might speed a little or roll through a stop sign, might even claim an extra exemption on your taxes you aren't entitled to. But we don't brandish guns and shoot folk and then make songs and videos glorifying it. Not if we are smart. MoK is a genius and he's right; it's about choices. Unlike MoK, I have definitely held a gun. Growning up in the South, we were required to take Hunter's Education before you get out of Junior High. I have a 98% shooting record, an almost perfect aim. BUT... I have a bad temper. And I'm Smart Enough To Know Guns And Bad Tempers Don't Match! So I don't have guns around me (or else my ex-hubby would have been dead fifty times over. lol!). Choices. Choose to obey the law and live peaceably. or. Choose to break the law and go to jail and subsequently, get clowned (rightfully so!) by MoK. It's Your Choice!
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Name: Lolly Comment: ps: It's actually kinda stupid to blame MoK for the arrest record of all these fools that keep breaking the law. So just for the record I must remind you, when a person breaks the law, acts stupid, shoots someone, or generally shows how idiotic they are, BLAME THEM!!! Just like Whitney, if no one steps up and blames the person for their own behavior, they will never own it, repent, and turn away from the sin. They won't take personal responsibility. So instead of pointing accusing fingers at the person reporting the mess, turn those fingers on the person PERFORMING the mess. If you stop celebrating foulness, maybe folk will stop being foul. Just a thought. Lolly :o)
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Name: streetdancer Comment: Hey Mo: Willie is just one mo reason why people should stay away from crack because only a crack-head could come with that type of reasoning, especially after reading your article. You make it plain and sooooo simple a fool can see tha logic in what your saying. Willie is just other victim-crat
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Name: MorrisOKelly Comment: I owe Willie an apology. I called him an idiot and should not have ever stooped to that level. I 'forgot' for a moment that I was not in just a casual conversation and crossed the line. I do apologize...
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Name: Sensual2 Comment: Thank you Mo. We are truly the LOST generation. I am sorry to say that we are a sad, pitiful people who has lost all moral values. Our foundation is gone, and without it we have nothing. Gun toting, ATROCIOUS language, 1/2 naked women, pimping men, glorifying thugs and hookers. God help us all.
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Name: JusSaying Comment: That would have been the first post wouldn't it??? In all fairness I read it three times... now four and I..just..don't..get..the...reasoning.. I..uh.. oh forget it was stupid!!! Mo you have just re-affirmed the reason why I respect you. You did not have to apologize and most men don't ..right or wrong. Much respect Mo
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Name: dejonjhclark Comment: Great article Mo' Hey cats that think like Willie are out there in mass and most of them are the next generation who will be running things. They have an (Hip-Hop is everything mind-set) It is holly to these misguided folk. Anything you say negative about a rapper will not be taken well. Could start WW4 (We in WW3 now with GWB) LOL... But that is all these poor people have to hold onto. And as if they don’t have a hard enough time with life in general, SAD SAD SAD. Now Mo' here you go putting all the King & Queen rappers in jail and giving them bad names. Don’t you have any compassion? Yea you did it; you are the problem not the rappers... LOL (Just kidding) Man we got to save em from themselves Mo', education is key! I love ya Cuzz keep writing..."Blue Phi" Yea you know!!! HEHEHEHE
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Name: Kofi Comment: It's people like Willie who rationalize and perpetrate violence which in turn leads rappers to carry guns because there are 10,000 Willies out there trying to make a name for themselves. The issue is much larger than the gun toting rappers. What is it about us that compels us to watch the videos and buy the CD's and idolize these people when we all know on some level this is all very destructive. These folks don't exist in a vacuum. Excellent piece Mo.
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Name: JamerDelta Comment: Hey Mo, did you forget Cassidy or was he covered in your last article. If not, add him to your list. Another promising career probably down the drain. I love hip hop and all, but I definitely agree with your point about choices. Life IS all about choices period. By the way, Lolly, I'm with you. I am very anti-guns------ biggest reason being if I ever had one, I might be tempted to use it, so I stay far, far away. -------- Knowing this about myself who, (if I may say so myself) is considered quite sane, educated, and pretty much informed about life, I believe that most people should stay away from them as well. I believe statistics show that most gun violence, accidents, shootings etc. outside of a war are done on or by people who know each other.
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