GRAND RAPIDS, Mich – A Grand Rapids woman has been arrested in the 2004 shooting death of Michael Anthony Richardson.
The Kent Metro Cold Case Team worked for seven months on the case before arresting Joyce Renee Phillips, 44. She has already been charged with manslaughter and pleaded guilty. Sentencing will be January 22.
Richardson was shot to death on February 12, 2004, in front of 612 Liberty Street SW. Phillips was Richardson’s girlfriend at the time, and the pair got physical during an argument, and she shot him, said the team. Phillips told police at the time that she was inside the house when the shooting occurred and didn’t see what happened.
But when the cold case team interviewed Phillips during their new investigation, she confessed to the shooting.
The Kent Metro Cold Case Team has now solved 12 homicides. The project is a partnership of the Michigan State Police, Grand Rapids Police Department, and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department.
