Phillips stated that he killed Clifton to stop her from crying after she was accidentally struck with a baseball while they were playing, and that he feared punishment from his abusive father.

Although elements of Phillips's story are disputed, officials who were involved in his prosecution have subsequently expressed contrition over the severity of his sentence.

[2] Eventually, Steve decided to relocate the family from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania to Florida, separating Phillips from his half-brothers Daniel and Benjie.

[9] A year before the murder, Phillips was making a home video in his front yard when Jessie and Clifton came over to his house to visit.

As the two were playing baseball, Phillips accidentally hit the ball into Clifton's eye, causing her to bleed, cry, and scream.

When Phillips discovered that Clifton was still alive and moaning under his bed, he removed the mattress, cut her throat, and stabbed her in the chest seven times with the knife from a Leatherman tool, killing her.

[11] The autopsy found no evidence of sexual assault, though prosecutors argued the lack of dirt and sand on Clifton's body did not support Phillips' assertion that her clothes came off as he dragged her into his room.

[2] Prosecutors also noted that no blood was found in the backyard, or on the baseball that Phillips said he had struck Clifton with, and argued that this did not support his version of events.

Phillips's lawyer, Richard D. Nichols, did not call a single witness for the defense, a move the prosecutors later said was a surprising and risky strategy.

Nichols intended to base much of the defense on a closing argument to the jury, where he stated Clifton's death was "an act that began as an accident and deteriorated through panic that bordered on madness".

[2] According to Phillips, Nichols never attempted to question him over the events of the murder, and only played chess with him when visiting him in jail prior to the trial.

[2][4] The trial started on July 6, 1999, and lasted only two days, an unusually short time due to the defense calling no witnesses.

[5] Phillips completed his General Educational Development in prison, although he was initially told he was too young to do it, and later took college classes by correspondence.

[16] In December 2004, Melissa Phillips began to seek a new trial for her son, stating his young age at the time of the murder should have carried more weight in his sentence.

[4] In 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States case of Miller v. Alabama ruled that sentencing juveniles to mandatory life in prison without parole is unconstitutional.

[25] In December 2019, the Florida First District Court of Appeal upheld the life sentence, saying it will be reviewed again and could be modified in 2023 "based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.