A murder trial in Franklin County Common Pleas Court ended abruptly Wednesday in a mistrial after Franklin County prosecutors played a video in court that did not redact discussion of another crime the defendant is accused of.
Antoine P. Phillips is accused of causing 35-year-old Jamie Fulton’s death on May 18, 2021. Phillips’ trial for one count each of murder, kidnapping and domestic violence began on Tuesday after a jury was selected on Monday.
A video in the case against Phillips shows him beating his girlfriend and leaving her body lying on Westerville Road in Blendon Township and at least six vehicles running her over, killing her.
A different video of Phillips in which he talks to police after Fulton’s death was played in court Wednesday, according to Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook. In that video, an officer mentions that Phillips is accused of raping someone in 2018 in a different pending case.
That information is prejudicial, meaning it unfairly biases the jury, and prosecutors were supposed to redact those parts of the video, Holbrook said.
The judge said his hands were tied, and he declared a mistrial Wednesday.
Franklin County Senior Prosecutor Janet Grubb, who oversees the criminal division, said a redacted version of the video was created, but the wrong version was presented in court.
“However, both sides missed the fact that the unredacted version was inadvertently presented in court,” Grubb said. “Due to the creation of possible prejudice, the correct thing to do was to restart the trial on another day. Our intention is to retry this matter at a later date.”