Sentencing disrupted
■ Phillippi overturns
table in protest of sentence,
courtroom closed to public.
By Jake Bleed
Senior staff writer
The sentencing of a Lincoln teen
ager convicted of several crimes
including assault was interrupted
Tuesday by friends of the teen-ager
who disagreed with the stiff sentence
he received.
Eric Phillippi, 19, pleaded guilty
Aug. 12 to assault and use of a
weapon to commit a felony and no
contest to attempted robbery and
making terroristic threats. -
Charges against Phillippi and
another teen-ager, Justin Gonzalez,
18, are in connection with a pair of
armed robberies that took place the
nights of April 5th and 6th, 1998 in
which a convenience store clerk was
shot in the face and back.
Friends of Phillippr erupted in
protest after Lancaster County
District Judge Karen Flowers sen
tenced the 19-year-old to 20 years in
prison for the assault charge, the first
of four charges.
The protest of Phillippi’s friends
interrupted the sentencing and forced
sheriff’s deputies and Lincoln police
officers to close the courtroom to the
public, removing Phillippi’s friends
and members of the press.
I
A chair and other furniture in the
hallway outside the courtroom were
overturned, apparently by supporters
ofPhillippi.
Flowers then sentenced Phillippi
to 16 to 35 years in prison for the
remaining three convictions.
Phillippi’s violent and verbal reaction
could be heard from the hall outside
the courtroom.
Deputies inside the courtroom at
the time said the 19-year-old flipped
the table he was sitting at after hear
ing his sentence.
Phillippi was later removed from
the court and restrained by three offi
cers. The sentencing came after argu
ments from prosecuting and defend
ing lawyers.
“What is so troubling to me is the
total lack of respect for society and
human life that was manifested not
only on the evening in question but
leading up to it,” Assistant County
Attorney Jim Rocke said.
Phillippi later asked Flowers to
consider his troubled background
when making the sentence.
“I never had the chance to be a
kid,” Phillippi said. “I was constantly
moving. Everything we had, we had
to hustle for it.”
Phillippi said his first firearm
related charge came in California
when he was 12.
“I was born into a process,”
Phillippi said. “I don’t like doing
what I do. There’s two Eric
Phillippis: the loving and the thug
ging”
Flowers responded that Phillippi
should know that she would have to
sentence him to prison.
“It’s obvious that I have to send
you to prison. The bottom line is that,
even by your own admission, you are
a dangerous person,” Flowers said.
Phillippi, along with Gonzales,
allegedly robbed Kwik Shop at 33rd
and Holdredge streets just before
midnight April 5, then a Gas ‘N Shop
at 5560 S. 48th St. early April 6.
Gonzales was convicted of
assault, felony use of a firearm, rob
bery and making terroristic threats.
Flowers sentenced the 18-year-old to
30 to 55 years in prison Tuesday.
The clerk at the Gas ‘N Shop was
shot in the cheek and back during the
robbery.
Rocke said in court that the pair
had bet a dollar before entering the
Kwik Shop of who would shoot first.
“That’s just so outrageous, it has
the ring of truth,” Rocke said.
Phillippi and Gonzales allegedly
fired several shots in the ceiling of
the Kwik Shop. Police were able to
link shell casings taken from both
robberies to a March 14, 1998 drive
by shooting in the 1300 block of N.
26th Street.
Both teen-agers are currently
serving 5 to 8 years for their role in
an escape attempt from the Lincoln
Detention Center March 22, which
hospitalized two detention center
employees.
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UNL researchers
study battleship
By Michelle Starr
Staffwriter
A war memorial and former U.S.
battleship that has been slowly leak
ing oil since it sunk decades ago has
been drawing the attention of UNL
researchers.
The USS Arizona, resting at the
bottom of Pearl Harbor, is being stud
ied by three researchers from the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s
department of mechanical engineer
ing.
Two of the UNL researchers
returned Saturday from a week-long
trip to Hawaii. Another will return
within the next few weeks with more
samples.
The USS Arizona was the first
ship bombed by the Japanese in
World War II and has been slowly
leaking oil ever since.
The research team is collecting
samples to determine how the sea life
living in the ship and the pollutants in
the harbor are affecting the ship’s rate
of corrosion.
They also want to know what
extent, if any, the leaking fuel inside
the ship could have on the environ
ment.
“We accomplished everything we
wanted to and then some in terms of
samples,” said William N. Weins,
associate professor of mechanical
engineering at UNL.
The three-man research team
consisting of Weins, professor emeri
tus Donald Johnson and research spe
cialist John Makinson, have been
working in conjunction with marine
archeologists from the national park
service.
“They were the history and arche
ology. We were more on chemistry
and the corrosion side of it,”
Makinson said.
Marine biologists from the
University of Hawaii are also aiding
in the research.
The research team was gathering
sea life living on the ship, to explain
the cause of the corrosion and what it
will do in the future.
They have not yet answered their
questions, but Weins was not con
cerned. It’s a long-term study because
there isn’t an immediate environmen
tal problem, he said.
“We’re not talking about gallons
of oil a day. It’s ounces of oil per day,”
Weins said.
Although the environmental con
cern is low, if the hull cracks in the
future, it might spill oil into the
ocean.
“What we do know is that several
thousands of tons of oil were on
board at the time of the attack.
Several thousand tons, not gallons.
That’s a lot of oil,” Weins said.
Makinson said it was a good
experience to work firsthand with the
fcfc
What we do know is
that several
thousands of tons of
oil were on board at
the time of the
attack Several
thousand tons, not
gallons. Thats a lot
William Weins
mechanical engineering professor
project in Hawaii after working on it
for more than a year. Until last week,
most of the research was done in
Nebraska.
The researchers, who were certi
fied as divers in Nebraska last sum
mer, found the murk of Nebraska
lakes helpful, Weins said. The lakes’
poor visibility of up to 20 feet was
similar to the harbor because of the
pollutants and the silt stirred by tour
boats, he said.
The researchers, led by the
marine archeologists, used maps to
navigate around the large ship.
They were careful not to bump
into the ship or touch the bottom of
the harbor to not disturb the monu
ment.
“The real experience was to dive
on the USS Arizona and the USS
Utah. The USS Arizona sunk during
the same time. It also contains oil and
is leaking. But USS Arizona was the
main focus of the study for its histo
ry,” Makinson said. “The Arizona
was more important for the number
of people that died on it.”
Graham Johnson, co-director of
the UNL environmental resource
center and a graduate student, who
was not involved with the project,
said researchers’ work on the ship’s
hull could possibly lead to easier con
tainment of leakage»in modern ships.
The next step is to receive more
samples and continue their research, •
Makinson said. They also plan to core
through the hull to find its thickness
and durability.
“In the future we hope we will
understand what is happening down -
there and what is going to happen,”
Makinson said.
There are no immediate dates
scheduled for another trip to Hawaii, !
Makinson said. «
Weins said he hopes their data
could help aide future decisions con- 1
cerning other sunken ships contain
ing fuel.
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