Phillips Gets Life for SF Friend's Murder

Convicted murderer Michael Phillips was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the killing of his elderly gay friend.

The January 18 sentencing followed Phillips' conviction of first-degree murder last fall by a San Francisco Superior Court jury for killing his friend, James Sheahan, 75.

Phillips was also convicted of numerous other charges and sentenced on those as well.

In August 2017, Sheahan's body was found in his bloodstained Nob Hill apartment. Phillips was arrested that November in connection with the death. Phillips, 65, pleaded not guilty in April 2017 to murder, robbery, and other charges related to the death of Sheahan.

During the trial, the jury was convinced by evidence presented by Assistant District Attorney O'Bryan Kenney that Phillips brutally killed Sheahan with a cordless phone then cut his wrist to make it look like a suicide before stealing thousands of dollars from him, including paintings, forged checks, and attempted cash withdrawals with Sheahan's ATM card. Kenney told the jury that the motive for the killing was Phillips' desperate love for a Filipino man, Archie Arcaya Fuscablo, and Phillips' need to funnel money to Fuscablo to get him to the United States. (Phillips and Fuscablo were married at San Francisco City Hall October 30, 2017, just weeks after Fuscablo arrived in the U.S.)

In the months leading up to his death, Sheahan was suffering from Stage 4 lung cancer. Witnesses testified during the trial that Sheahan died from multiple traumatic injuries to the head caused by blunt force trauma.

A former friend of Phillips', John Dawson, 52, of San Francisco, was the only person associated with Phillips who attended the sentencing. Dawson had also attended several days of the trial. Phillips and Dawson met at a gay men's pen pal group in 2000. At the time they were friends, Dawson said Phillips' life was "in a downward spiral."

"He was asking all of his friends for money," he said, adding that Phillips had asked him for money multiple times.

When asked what Dawson thought about the sentencing, Dawson told the Bay Area Reporter, "Anyone who saw all the evidence could not have found him not guilty."

He also said when he was first told of Phillips' arrest he was not shocked that he was in trouble, but stunned that it was murder.

"I am not surprised, he was totally in denial of his own life," Dawson said. "He had no self-awareness."

Prior to issuing the sentence, Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi gave the reasoning for her decision.