Yikes. Apparently
homeboy had quite a past. Starting with a contentious divorce while still in military service (ARMY O-4 AH-64 pilot), allegations of overcharging by the military from defenders of the accused online, a fervent cohort of online military circle "counter-PC culture" defenders of the man, yet an actual dismissal (Officer equivalent of dishonorable discharge) from the Army. A short amount of imprisonment (3 month) if I understood the conviction correctly as well.
So the plot is thick. Apparently the exwife too was convicted of tampering, by coaching the kids to lie under oath. There were allegations she was still legally married to another man in Tennessee, but the article didn't make it clear how that shook out as far as the accused dismissed Major's defense. The Army apparently offered the estranged wife 250K as transitional compensation if the accused was convicted of any of the sex offense charges. He wasn't convicted of those, so she couldn't collect on it. He was convicted of the mishandling of classified materials charges, and the catch-all unbecoming charges the military always throws at you during a Court Martial.
The article is hinting at the idea the murders were motivated to snuff federal witnesses from testifying against him in the trial relating to classified material. The married couple was in fact their neighbors. The allegation is that the killing plus the arson and burglary was meant to eliminate the male Phillips from testifying, plus getting rid of the physical evidence the deceased had against the now dismissed Major. How they were privy to that angle of his prior military classified material misconduct, nevermind the tissy with the ex-wife? I guess the trial will tell.
The online military defenders's community hold the position that the murder accusation is concocted by the exwife and apparently she was banging the married dude. Again, the plot is thick.
The biggest thing here for this particular message board is, this isn't looking good optics for PSA or regional hiring imo. The guy had a effing outright dismissal from the US ARMY plus confinement, when he got hired to swing gear in an RJ. Pilot shortage jokes and all that jazz, but that's just not a compliment to the regional job. not. one. bit. Color me unimpressed with regional hiring. It really puts the cherry on the cake of that rotors-to-regional transition programs
i keed i keed.