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Judge Resentences Maddie Clifton's Killer To Life In Prison

Josh Phillips will spend the rest of his life in prison for the 1998 murder of his 8-year-old neighbor, Circuit Judge Waddell Wallace III announced Friday morning.

Phillips, now 33, was 14-years-old when he hit his neighbor, Maddie Clifton, repeatedly with a baseball bat, slit her throat and hid her body in his bed. Police, family and strangers searched for the little girl for a week.

After an August resentencing hearing in which the family shared their horrific memories of Maddie's death, the judge announced his decision based on his review of the evidence and case law, according to our News4Jax partner.

He could have sentenced Phillips to a minimum of 40 years on the first-degree murder conviction, and, given special circumstances, up to life in prison.

"The court then finds it is appropriate to impose a life sentence in a case that's a truly unusual case, one of a series of way (the higher courts) describe it: Irredeemable depravity or the worst of the worse or circumstances that are truly unique and different from the ordinary," Waddell said. "I believe this is one of the most rare and unusual crimes that warrants life in prison."

Prosecutors had asked for the life sentence, with a review in 25 years from his original conviction. That would have Phillips back in a Duval County courtroom in 2023.

Maddie's family had said they would tell their story over and over again as long as Phillips never walks the Earth as a free man.

"I will get up here, sit here, and fight for her until I'm no longer on this Earth, and I always will," Maddie's older sister, Jessie Clifton, said after the August hearing. "She was my best friend, and I will always fight for her, because I know if it was the other way around, she would do it for me.”

During the hearing in August, Phillips took the stand, apologizing to Maddie's family.

"I don't pretend to know or understand your pain or to grasp the void I created in your lives," Phillips said, addressing the Clifton family. "I can say this, I do understand pain. I have become quite intimate with suffering. Growing up in prison, I've seen many dark things and I've been some dark places. Many times throughout this journey, I came close to ending my life, just to escape it all."

But remembering how Phillips killed Maddie is something that Jessie previously told our News4Jax partner she can never forgive.

"All I see is that guy on the stand, just showing how he did it, and it's just, like, do you expect me to take on that burden to forgive you? I can't," Jessie said.

Maddie's family members hope Friday will be the last time they ever have to sit in the same room as Phillips again.