Ronald Phillips Executed In Ohio For The 1993 Rape And Murder Of 3-Year-Old Sheila Marie Evans

In 1993, Ronald Phillips was dating the mother of 3-year-old Sheila Marie Evans. He called the young child for breakfast, and she did not respond. According to Parole Board documents, he admitted to beating the child to punish her for not answering him. The abuse got even worse when he admitted he raped Sheila Marie that day, as well as on two prior occasions.

Sheila Marie’s mother found her daughter on her bed, still alive, but seriously injured. She was rushed to a nearby Akron hospital where she had emergency surgery but did not survive. When the autopsy took place the next day, 125 bruises were found on the small child’s body. The terrible beating had been on her face, head, lower torso, genitalia, arms, and legs.

Ronald Phillips has appealed his sentence several times. On each trip before the Parole Board, he was denied. The circumstances of the murder of a young, vulnerable child were just too much to overlook. One of his appeals had been based on his age at the time of the crime. He was 19, but Ohio law does not allow execution for crimes committed under the age of 18. Of course, his age was not considered, and the appeal was denied.

According to MSN, Ohio has not held an execution since January 2014. During the last execution performed, the inmate being put to death had spent 26 minutes gasping and snorting when administered a combination of drugs that had not been used together before. After lawsuits by other inmates on death row, the state has again won the right to proceed with executions using a combination of three drugs. One of the drugs is a sedative and has been used in both Arkansas and Arizona for difficult executions.

Ronald Phillips had lost his final appeal on Tuesday, July 24. With all avenues exhausted, he his sentence was carried out yesterday morning, and he was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. In his final statement, Phillips said that little Sheila Marie hadn’t deserved what he had done to her. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Ronal Phillips is the 15th execution in the U.S. so far this year. His execution will open the door for more executions to take place in the state of Ohio.

[Featured Image by NBC]