Tied up in the court system for 15 years, the extremely long and winding road of an Auburn murder case against William Phillip Jr. for killing city of Kent employee Seth Frankel in 2010, finally concluded.
“Justice has failed this family,” King County Superior Court Judge Kristin Ballinger said prior to sentencing Phillip for second-degree murder to 18 years, four months in a courtroom Dec. 19 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. “The system has failed you. You are right that you all have borne for 15 years the brunt, the force of that failure.”
Despite an arrest of Phillip by Auburn Police seven months after the May 21, 2010 fatal stabbing inside the Auburn home of Frankel, 41, a father of two young girls and city of Kent videographer, family and friends of Frankel wondered if the case would ever end…