Comment on Ezekiel Phillips sentenced to life plus 50 years in Tyrice Douglas murder

CEDAR RAPIDS — Before he was sentenced at the Linn County Courthouse to life without the possibility of parole plus 50 years Friday, Ezekiel Phillips asked 6th Judicial District Judge Jason Besler to grant his request for a new trial.Phillips’ attorney, Tyler Johnston, told the judge that he “believes in no way, shape or form did Ezekiel Phillips get a fair trial.”“You are about to sentence Ezekiel Phillips to life in prison,” Johnston told the judge, adding that in his 30 years as a lawyer he had never participated in a trial that was conducted the way this one was.Johnston laid out a litany of reasons, including that evidence still was being filed during the trial — denying the defense a chance to review and analyze it themselves — and what Johnston called a volatile and prejudicial closing argument made by Assistant Linn County Attorney Rena Schulte.