Phillips sentencing scheduled for Friday.

Sean Phillips

Phillips sentencing scheduled for Friday.

#BabyKate

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

LUDINGTON — Sean Michael Phillips is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning where he will be sentenced for second degree murder of his infant daughter.

Phillips was found guilty by a jury on October 14, following a three week trial in 51st Circuit Court. The 26-year-old Victory Township man faces a maximum of life in prison, with the possibility of parole, for the murder of his 4-month-old daughter, Katherine Shelbie-Elizabeth Phillips, also known as Baby Kate. He is currently serving a 10-year-minimum prison sentence for the unlawful imprisonment (kidnapping) of Baby Kate and the new sentence would run concurrent.

Katherine Phillips has not been seen since June 29, 2011, after she was last seen by her mother, Ariel Courtland, in the back of Phillips’s car. Phillips left Birch Lake Apartments on East Tinkham Avenue apartment after the he and Courtland had been arguing, according to testimony of Courtland and witnesses. For the next several hours his whereabouts and activities have never been confirmed. But, when law enforcement officers from Ludington Police Department and Mason County Sheriff’s Office found Phillips at his parents’ home on West Millerton Road in Victory Township, the baby was nowhere to be found; however, Phillips had the baby’s clothes in his pocket and had placed the carseat and diaper bag in the trunk of his car.

Sentencing in front of Judge Pete Wadel is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.