Seaford micropolitan area population grows the most of US micropolitans in 2023
CRIME

Jury convicts Eden Park shooters of murder

Sean O'Sullivan
The News Journal

WILMINGTON – A Superior Court jury has convicted two men of murder in the shooting deaths of an organizer at a 2012 Eden Park soccer tournament.

Jeffrey Phillips and Otis Phillips were convicted of shooting 47-year-old Herman Curry. Both also were convicted of manslaughter stemming from shots Jeffrey Phillips fired into a crowd that struck and killed 16-year-old Alexander Kamara Jr.

Otis Phillips also was convicted of second degree murder in the killing of Christopher Palmer in 2008. Prosecutors alleged that Otis Phillips targeted Curry because he was a witness to the 2008 slaying of Palmer and identified Otis as the killer.

Emergency personnel prepare to transport a shooting victim to Christiana Hospital in July 2012 following a a shooting at Eden Park.

Both men now face a possible death sentence. The death penalty phase of the trial will begin Dec. 1 with prosecutors producing evidence of aggravating factors and defense lawyers presenting any mitigating factors.

Members of the Kamara and Curry families were in the courtroom shortly before 6 p.m. on Friday when the jury verdict was reached.

In addition to the slayings of Curry and Kamara, Jeffrey Phillips, 23, and Otis Phillips, 38, were also charged with gang participation and a number of other felonies including assault, conspiracy and weapons violations.

Prosecutors charged both were equally responsible for the murders under accomplice liability and that the two acted in concert that day as part of an organized plan of revenge and retaliation against the Jamaican community for a murder of a friend of theirs by a Jamaican man earlier that morning.

Contact Sean O'Sullivan at 302 324-2777 or sosullivan@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @SeanGOSullivan


Jeffrey Phillips
Otis Phillips