Jury finds Emily guilty of misdemeanor assault

A Ste. Genevieve County jury deliberated more than two hours before finding Phillip Emily guilty of a lesser charge.

Emily, 40, of Richwoods, was found guilty of misdemeanor assault. He is scheduled to be sentenced in May before Circuit Court Judge Wendy Wexler Horn.

Emily had been charged with first-degree assault and if convicted, could have been sentenced to life in prison. The case was heard in Ste. Genevieve on a change of venue from Washington County.

According to court records, a victim of an assault that occurred May 6, 2013 told Washington County authorities that a woman called him and asked for a ride to her house. When he arrived and got out of his truck someone yelled at him and then he was attacked from behind by two men.

He said during the assault a third man, identified as Emily, started yelling that he was getting the beating because he turned Gary Sancegrow in for Dec. 15, 2012 fatal shooting the Deputy Christopher Parsons.

The assault victim said he heard the men threaten to go after his father. He said Emily hit him with an aluminum baseball bat. He said he was also hit from behind with a bat.

He said he kept hearing them talk about a reward for turning in Sancegrow. The man said he had just cashed his disability check and had about $700 in his pocket. He said he thought the only way to survive was to give them money so he threw the money at the men and one of them took it.

The victim was in the hospital for nine days and needed facial reconstructive surgery.

Emily is no stranger to law enforcement in Washington County. Prison records show he had just been released from prison that December. In 2010, Emily was sentenced to nine years in prison for unlawful use of a weapon, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident, tampering and resisting arrest. As part of that plea agreement three counts of assault on a law enforcement officer, and three counts of armed criminal action were dismissed.

Phillip Emily