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CASTLE DALE — A man was arrested after a woman he had been with left a note at a gas station near Salina, saying she was being held against her will. He pleaded guilty to reduced charges last month after she was unavailable to testify.
Richard Lyneal Phillips, 39, of Michigan, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, a class B misdemeanor, and was sentenced to six months in jail. He was credited for the two months he had already spent at the Emery County Jail.
As a result of a plea deal, multiple charges were dismissed, including kidnapping, a second-degree felony; violation of a protective order, a class A misdemeanor; providing false information to police and driving without a license, both class C misdemeanors.
Deputy Emery County attorney Aaron Lancaster said prosecutors were unable to contact the woman who alleged Phillips had kidnapped her but had tried multiple times. Because of this, she was unavailable to testify in the case.
On June 20, the Utah Highway Patrol started looking for a vehicle heading east on I-70, based on the note found at a gas station, according to a police booking affidavit. A trooper spotted the vehicle at another gas station, outside of Green River. Phillips was taken into custody "after a brief standoff" there, the affidavit states.
A "very emotional" woman got out of the car, and investigators said she had left another note with a woman in the restroom at the Green River. She had written she was a victim of assault and was not allowed to leave. The woman said she was previously in a relationship with Phillips but had obtained a protective order against him at that point.
She reported she was getting into her car in Michigan 10 days earlier when he "told her to drive him wherever he wanted to go," the affidavit said, adding the woman knew Phillips had been actively avoiding law enforcement.
During those 10 days, the woman alleged she was assaulted and Phillips would only allow her to use her phone in his presence, occasionally, to contact her children, according to the affidavit. Police could not verify whether the woman was held against her will.
