‘Bucky’ Phillips gets extra sentence

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Kevin Rivoli

December 21, 2006

Non-fatal shooting adds another 40 years

BY BEN DOBBIN The Tonawanda News Thu Dec 21, 2006, 12:28 PM EST

ELMIRA — An escaped convict who shot and wounded a New York state trooper was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison Wednesday, a day after he was given life without parole for shooting two other troopers, one of whom died.

Ralph “Bucky” Phillips, 44, whose dramatic capture in September ended the longest manhunt in state history, tried again unsuccessfully to withdraw his guilty plea before being handed the maximum penalty for the attempted murder of Trooper Sean Brown.

Brown, 31, was shot in the abdomen when he approached a car Phillips had stolen during a June 10 traffic stop. Brown has since recovered and returned to duty.

On Tuesday, Phillips was sentenced in Chautauqua County court to life in prison without parole for shooting Joseph Longobardo and Donald Baker Jr. while the troopers staked out the rural home of Phillips’ former girlfriend on Aug. 31.

Longobardo died of his wounds and Baker was hospitalized for three months after being shot in the torso.

Phillips was also sentenced Tuesday in Buffalo court to 25 years to life for escaping from an Erie County jail in April by using an industrial can opener to cut a hole in kitchen ceiling. He spent five months on the run before being captured just across the Pennsylvania line Sept. 8.

He pleaded guilty on Nov. 29 to the three shootings but now maintains he never intended to kill anyone.

In exchange for the pleas, prosecutors said they agreed to drop charges against Phillips’ daughter, Patrina Wright, and her mother, Kasey Crowe. Wright was charged with child endangerment for allowing Phillips to visit her children while he was on the run, and Crowe was charged with hindering prosecution.

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