Mail theft spree nets North Pole man five years in prison

Dec. 10, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER -A North Pole man arrested, tried and convicted in Palmer of multiple counts of theft, forgery and criminal impersonation was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison, with half that time suspended.

John Bo Phillips, 23, by his own admission, was a menace to society, said Suzanne Powell, assistant district attorney.

Phillips was convicted of nine Class C felonies, four Class B felonies and two misdemeanors in August for his part in mail thefts, check forgeries and creating fake driver's

licenses.

&#8220He said he did it because it was such an easy crime,” Powell said.

Phillips' partner in crime, Kevin Coe, 32, pleaded no contest in October to two felony charges in connection with the case, and received a five-year sentence with half that time suspended from Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler.

Powell asked Superior Court Judge Eric Smith to sentence Phillips to at least three times what Coe received.

It was going to take a lot to rehabilitate Phillips, Powell said.

&#8220He admitted he really had no reason, except it was so easy,” she said. &#8220It's not a victimless crime. People were really upset their identities were stolen, with people running around making fake driver's licenses.”

Lyle Stohler, Phillips' appointed attorney, affirmed his client's theft from mail boxes, forging of checks and creating the phony driver's licenses were not victimless crimes.

&#8220They were property crimes,” Stohler said. &#8220He didn't violate the sanctity of their homes, never used force or threatened anybody.”

Phillips is intelligent and still has the possibility of a bright future, Stohler said. Phillips had a limited criminal history and was young, so he qualified as a first-time, non-violent offender, he said.

Stohler asked Smith for a suspended imposition of a one-year sentence, and probation.

&#8220I think he got cocky and lost sight of the values he was raised with,” Stohler said.

One of Phillips' victims wrote a letter to the court, saying he spoke with people who knew and cared about Phillips. Those people described the man who stole Andrew Parkerson-Gray's identity as intelligent, and Parkerson-Gray said he didn't doubt it. But Phillips wasted his intelligence on crime and was arrogant, Parkerson-Gray wrote. The victim requested $2,500 for time he lost to cleaning up the mess Phillips' created in his life, and for counseling.

Phillips apologized to his victims and acknowledged his wrongdoing.

&#8220I didn't run from this,” Phillips. &#8220I took responsibility for this, and I hope for a second chance.”

Judge Smith said Phillips might have qualified for a suspended sentence, but the level of sophistication and pattern of planning multiple crimes came out at trial.

&#8220I think Mr. Phillips has woken up,” Smith said. &#8220But at the time, he thought he was walking on water.”

Smith suspended five years of Phillips' 10-year sentence, and he added five years probation.

&#8220You're a really smart guy,” Smith said to Phillips. &#8220No doubt, the next years are going to be rough, but you're capable.”

Investigations that led to the indictment of Phillips, Coe and eight other Fairbanks-area people started with a traffic stop for reckless driving in Palmer a year ago.

After James Gipson, a Palmer police officer, pulled Phillips over for reckless driving, he noticed a shotgun, and he searched Phillips' Bronco. When Gipson found fake identifications and checks with other peoples' names, he kicked off an investigation that eventually involved Kelly Turney, a Palmer police detective; Pearl Holston, Turney's sister and counterpart with the Fairbanks police; the North Pole police, Alaska Bureau of Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The multi-jurisdictional investigation revealed a crime spree that extended from Fox to Valdez down the Richardson Highway, and from Fairbanks into the Valley and Anchorage along the Parks Highway. Investigators recovered an estimated $500,000 worth of merchandise and identified 500 mail-theft victims.

After hearing the verdict, Turney said if the victims were happy, he was happy. He would have preferred to see Phillips serve more time, he said, but he understood that sentencing guidelines had to consider Phillips' youth and lack of previous criminal history.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.