Kenai resident pleads guilty to 2020 homicide

He was sentenced to 70 years, with 35 suspended

A 26-year-old Kenai resident who was arrested in February 2020 for the murder of his mother pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to 35 years in prison earlier this month.

According to an affidavit by Kenai Police Department Sergeant Ryan Grimm, included in the court documents, police arrested Philip Green on Feb. 18, 2020, after the department received reports of a gunshot and a woman — identified as Green’s mother Rita Green — found dead at a Kenai residence. The affidavit says witnesses reported that Green had left the residence on foot, and that he had been seen carrying a backpack and wearing “a black ski mask.”

Green was located and taken into custody “five blocks southwest of the scene of the crime,” with a bullet and a handgun in his possession. He was charged with first-degree murder — the crime of causing the death of a person with intent to cause the death of a person.

A grand jury indictment dated later that same month, on Feb. 26, added two charges of second-degree murder and a charge of manslaughter, for four total charges against Green.

Green, under a plea agreement, pleaded guilty to only the charge of first-degree murder, while the other three charges were dropped. He was sentenced to 70 years, with 35 suspended, in prison. Time already served will be credited to him, the judgment says.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

Tags: ,