FAYETTEVILLE — A prosecutor filed a habitual-offender charge Thursday against capital-murder defendant Clint Eugene Phillips, who is scheduled for trial next week in the 1994 slaying of a Madison County woman.
Fourth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Terry Jones filed the enhancement charge, which could add 10 to 60 years to a prison sentence if Phillips is convicted.
Phillips, 27, of Huntsville is charged in the Sept. 2, 1994, death of Billie Jean Phillips. She was bludgeoned, then strangled to death home.
The two are not related.
There were no arrests in the case for nearly a decade until last year when authorities matched Clint Phillips' DNA to tissue found under Billie Phillips fingernails.
Jones hasn't said whether he'll seek the death penalty against Clint Phillips, whose trial is set to start Tuesday in Madison County Circuit Court.
The punishment for capital murder is the death penalty or life in prison.
Phillips is a habitual offender because he's been convicted of five felonies, Jones said. The felonies are second-degree sexual assault, possessing methamphetamine, counterfeiting, violating the Arkansas Hot Check Law and failing to appear.
The October sex-assault conviction led to Clint Phillips' arrest in the murder case.
As a requirement of the conviction, Clint Phillips provided a blood sample, from which his DNA was derived and compared with DNA under Billie Phillips' nails.