Sentenced to 34 years in prison. Another retrial to go.
Mar 27, 2007 - A retrial is scheduled for Philip Speers, 36, a second-grade teacher at St. Francis of Assisi School, who w
as convicted of two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor for child pornography.
Speers was entenced in 2002 to 34 years for the pornography. A year later, he was convicted of molesting girls and was sentenced to 71 years in prison. Both the 2002 and 2003 convictions were overturned by the Arizona Court of Appeals, which ruled that Speers' defense had not been allowed to use an expert witness to testify about how interview techniques used by police might have influenced the testimony of child witnesses, and that the defense was not allowed to call character witnesses at trial.
Speers is representing himself with the help of a court-appointed legal advisor.
Full Name: Philip Gregory Speers
Update June 25 - Jury selection has begun in the retrial. The retrial is scheduled to begin July 2. Speers is representing himself.
Update July 2 - The jury has been selected in the third trial of Philip Speers. Speers was convicted in his 1st 2 trials, but each time a judge overturned those convictions.
Since his arrest 7 years ago, he has remained bars.
Update July 17 - Speers is no longer going to represent himself. He will now be represented by his court-appointed advisory counsel. The expert witness testimony appears to have been effectively countered by the prosecution.
Update August 1 - The jury is still out in the case, but one juror has been replaced. No reason given.
VERDICT: August 2 - The jury found him guilty on two counts of molestation of a child. The jury also determined in its guilty findings that the victims were both under 15 years of age, which will greatly affect the sentence.
The current retrial is for Speers' 2003 conviction on the five charges for which he was originally sentenced to 71 years in prison.He will be sentenced August 29.
Speers was also sentenced in 2002 to 34 years in prison after being convicted of two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor for having child pornography on his computer. He is also awaiting a retrial for the 2002 conviction.
SENTENCED: August 30 - Speers was sentenced to 34 years - 17 years for each count - after being convicted of molesting two of his students. By law, the sentences must be served consecutively, meaning once Speers finishes serving the first 17-year sentence, he will start serving the second.
His next retrial will be October 9.
Sept 19 - The county attorney's office will not retry Philip Gregory Speers on two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor for allegedly having child pornography on his computer.
