The man accused of fatally shooting Kentucky State Police Trooper Hayden Phillips in the line of duty Monday made his first court appearance Tuesday morning and was ordered held without bail.
Emonnie Dion Branch, 51, of Portland, Tennessee, was wheeled into Warren District Court to be arraigned on a count of murder of a first responder.
Warren District Judge Kim Geoghegan entered a not guilty plea on Branch’s behalf and scheduled a preliminary hearing for Friday morning.
Branch did not speak except to say he wanted a lawyer appointed to represent him.
Attorney David Graf of the Department of Public Advocacy said he would reserve any arguments on bond until Friday’s hearing and Geoghegan went on to deny bail for Branch.
Branch was arrested late Monday afternoon in Louisville after a manhunt.
State police said in a news conference Monday that Phillips pulled Branch over on the interstate, and Branch fatally shot Phillips before he fled to Louisville where he was captured.
Branch had an active arrest warrant out of Tennessee for a probation violation, according to the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office.
Prosecutors said Branch is a repeat offender, and that he is named on an arrest warrant issued in Sumner County in August for violating the terms of his probation. He was sentenced to probation last year after being convicted of fraud and impersonation. Authorities have not described the probation violation.
Branch wore an orange jail uniform and sat in a wheelchair in the courtroom packed with members of Phillips’ family and rows of law enforcement officers.
Trooper Katan Parker, a state police spokesperson in Bowling Green, said Tuesday authorities are not sure why Phillips pulled Branch over. At a news conference Monday, Kyle Bumgarner, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, described it as a “routine traffic stop” and said officials responded within minutes of the shooting.
“It is the most heinous crime that can be committed in our commonwealth,” Bumgarner said. “One of our own was gunned down and murdered on the side of the road.”
Phillips, who would have turned 29 on Wednesday, had been with the agency for three years and was based in Bowling Green in south-central Kentucky. He was a husband and father of three.
Dozens of law enforcement vehicles escorted his body from the medical examiner’s office in Louisville, where an autopsy was performed, to a funeral home in his hometown of Glasgow on Tuesday. Funeral arrangements were pending.
First responders and residents of Russell County attended a vigil for Phillips on Monday night in Russell Springs, where he had once served as a firefighter, emergency medical technician and a police officer.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
Photo courtesy of JailTracker
