Jury deliberating in Baby Kate case

LUDINGTON, Mich. (WOOD) - Following closing arguments and instructions from Judge Richard Cooper, a jury was handed the case of Sean Phillips, accused in the unlawful imprisonment of his 4-month-old daughter Katherine.

Two alternate jurors were officially excused before the remaining 12 began deliberations around 6 p.m.

Around 7:40 p.m., the jurors said they had not yet reached a verdict and would continue deliberations on Friday.

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Both the prosecution and defense told the jury to ignore the sideshow in the Sean Phillips trial. But defense attorney Annette Smedley reminded them a conviction must be beyond reasonable doubt.

Closing arguments took place following a brief defense of the 22-year-old accused in the unlawful imprisonment of his baby daughter.

Jurors received written instructions just before prosecutor Paul Spaniola addressed them around 2:30 p.m.

"Do not get caught up in the side show," Spaniola said. "Sean Phillips is the one who is accused of this offense. ... Sean did not want the responsibility of Katherine. ... When opportunity knocked (access to Kate), he answered. He took the opportunity that was presented to him. So he took her. ... He did something with her. (What he did) we don't know 'cause nobody's seen her in nearly 10 months."

He acknowledged that Ariel Courtland -- Baby Kate's mother -- is "an easy target."

"You can totally disbelieve Ariel if you want," he told the jury. "The times don't lie," referring to timeline that has no explanation of Phillips' location for hours.

"The data shows that the defendant has motive, opportunity and ability to unlawfully imprison Katherine," Spaniola said, and then asked the jurors to find Phillips guilty.

"It's difficult to sit on cases like this because a child's involved," defense attorney Annette Smedley said. "You need to set those emotions aside."

She began by dissecting the testimony from plant biologists about dirt found on Phillips' shoes. The dirt, she said, could have come from anywhere, and the expert reports don't "mean anything."

She also questioned Courtland's chain of events, including whether she was truthful about when she was looking for Baby Kate.

Courtland knew, Smedley said, that Phillips was hungry. So why didn't she look in restaurants?

She told the jurors Courtland "knows how the system works," and reminded them Courtland's mother told police she wondered if Ariel threw Baby Kate in the river.

"That," Smedley said, "came from her mother that knows her best."

She told the jury Courtland is obsessed with Phillips and had the motive and opportunity to take Kate.

Smedley also reminded the jurors the burden is on the prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Phillips' guilt.

"Is there doubt?" she rhetorically asked the jury. "Doubt is all over this case. ... When there's doubt, (the verdict is) not guilty."

Tempers boiled once again during Spanolia's rebuttal after Smedley's closing argument.

Spaniola said that "Ariel and an awful lot of other people are interested in knowing where" Baby Kate is at.

Smedley objected, saying it didn't matter how the public felt about the case. She said that Spaniola was misleading the jury.

"Absolutely not am I misleading the jury," Spaniola snapped back, visibly upset.

The judge immediately called for a break. Upon returning to the courtroom, Spaniola apologized to the judge for snapping.

Around 5:45 p.m., closing arguments and rebuttal were over and the judge gave the jury verbal instructions.

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The defense rested after calling only three witnesses on Phillips' behalf. His 4-month-old daughter Katherine was last seen on June 29, 2011.

The defense spent about two hours total with their witnesses.

Ariel Courtland's mother's boyfriend, Kenneth Wilson, testified in Sean Phillips' defense that Phillips offered him $5,000 to kill Ariel.

Wilson took the stand as the second defense witness. Wilson said Courtland many times threatened to kidnap Hailey, their other daughter, but that he never told police about the alleged murder-for-hire offer.

Wilson was followed to the stand by Aaron Salisbury, a former employer of Courtland. He testified she said Baby Kate was causing problems and that she wished Kate would die.

Ariel, Salisbury said, told coworkers Phillips told her he had thrown Kate into a river.

Courtland herself was briefly on the stand again, and angrily denied allegations she never wanted to have Baby Kate.

However, defense attorney Annette Smedley did not call Jaime Jones of the Missing You foundation. Jones' testimony was expected to deal with the clothing that Baby Kate was allegedly wearing when she was last seen. It is not known why he was not called, since Smedley added him to the witness list Monday.

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The prosecution rested its case against Sean Phillips after brief testimony from an FBI agent who talked with a couple who was found on an adoptive parents website.

Sean Phillips' defense attorney objected to the testimony from FBI agent Brett