Trial begins for man who shot neighbor

PALMER — Either Phillip Bailey shot an unarmed man in the back of the head for no good reason, or he was defending himself against verbal threats coming from a convicted murderer.

Bailey, 38, is charged with murder for the Oct. 1, 2011 shooting of his neighbor, Dale E. Prater, who was 45 when he died.

“‘That’s what I thought you’d say.’ That’s the last word Dale Prater heard the defendant say before he shot him in the back of the head,” prosecutor Kerry Corliss said. “Dale was killed instantly and fell where he stood.”

Corliss described her version of events leading up to the shooting. Prater brought Bailey two packs of cigarettes and told him to put what he owed on his “tab.”

In her initial opening statements, Corliss said nothing about what motivated Bailey to pull the trigger.

In interviews at around the time, Prater’s fiancée, Dawn Syers, said she was similarly confused. Prater and Bailey had been friends. There were rumors that Prater had been sleeping with Bailey’s wife. Syers said those rumors were false.

As for the defense’s version of events, objections from Corliss cut them short, but defense attorney Nathaniel Peters, like Corliss, started out with words allegedly spoken that day.

“‘You call the cops on me and I’ll cut your f------ throat. I’m not going back to jail.’ That’s what Dale Prater said to the defendant, Phil Bailey, right before a single shot rang out,” Peters said.

Peters said Bailey was scared because he knew Dale had been convicted of murder in Oklahoma.

And online records do list a Dale E. Prater of the right age, with the same set of convictions Peters described, released at the right time to have moved to Alaska when Syers said he did.

Peters also said Bailey was scared because Prater had been handling a large knife and Bailey didn’t know where it was at that moment. There was also a sword on a counter easily within Prater’s reach, he said.

But Corliss, in her opening remarks, noted that no one person who was in the apartment when Prater was shot said he was armed. The coroner did find a small folding knife in Prater’s pocket, but there’s no indication he used or intend to use it against Bailey.

As of mid-afternoon Thursday, Superior Court Judge Greg Heath was deciding what to do about Corliss’ objections to Peters’ opening statements. The trial is scheduled to continue into next week.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.