The 14-Year-Old Cheerleader Who Murdered Her Ex-Boyfriend | The Oprah Winfrey Show | OWN

OPRAH WINFREY (VOICEOVER):
She was a popular cheerleader in school, who was once
a straight A student, but that was before she
lured her ex-boyfriend into the woods, so
that her new boyfriend could murder him,
set his body on fire, and dump it in this river. Phyllis is now serving
time for that crime at a prison in Georgia. There’s a recent
study, that we read, that has found that murder
by teenagers in America has increased a shocking
93% in the last 4 years. It seems like our
country is raising a generation of young killers. And that’s what we’re talking
about today, specifically young women who
turn to violence. Phyllis, I know you didn’t
start out, in your life, to end up where
you are right now. How do you think this happened? It was really a bad
choice, bad decisions. You know, I grew up in a family
that there was a lot of love. But, you know, I
just decided not to– to follow in with what my mom–
my mom and dad was telling me. I decided to take
things into my own hands and live my life the
way I wanted to live it. Because you were 14
when you did this, right? PHYLLIS: Yes. I was. 14 years old. So what was going on in your
life at 14 that could cause you now to be jailed for murder? I was hanging around
the wrong crowd. I was using drugs, a lot–
a lot of peer pressure. Just in general, what every
teenager goes through, it’s just that I decided,
you know, I wanted to take it a little further. OK. So this is what we’re trying to
understand, because there are a lot of parents out there
watching who are probably saying, I know this could
never happen to my child, my son, certainly
not my daughter, because my daughter
is a cheerleader, just like you were. My daughter is a straight A
student, just like you were. So how does a straight A
student end up in prison? What– what happened? Were you– you were in love
or thought you were in love? I thought I was. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. This could happen
to anyone, anyone, black, white, female, male. It doesn’t matter. OPRAH WINFREY: Take us
through the day of the murder. What were you
thinking on that day? How did this happen? First of all, you
have to understand drugs played a big role in
my life at that time. I was thinking of Phyllis. I was looking out for Phyllis. What kind of drugs? We’re looking at marijuana. We’re looking at cocaine,
any kind of barbiturate, pills of any–
pills of any type. OPRAH WINFREY:
Are you saying you were on drugs when you– when
you lured him into the woods? A couple nights before
I had you some cocaine and I’m pretty sure
that I was still coming down from the high. OPRAH WINFREY: Uh huh? A couple of nights, you– it took you a couple of days? PHYLLIS: I think it was– the murder happened on a Friday,
and I had taken the drugs, like, Wednesday night. So you’re saying the drugs
were still in your body? PHYLLIS: They may have been. They may have been. Are you saying that
you weren’t rational? Are you saying you
weren’t responsible? Are you saying the drugs did it? PHYLLIS: No. I’m not blaming anything. I’m not blaming any–
any of the drugs. That played a part. But I– you have to
understand that I take full responsibility of what
happened– for what happened. OPRAH WINFREY: OK.
So what did happen? Where do you– where
would you like me to start? OPRAH WINFREY: OK.
Let’s start with Jimmy McCoy. You liked both Jimmy McCoy
and Jimmy [INAUDIBLE] at the same time, right? Or you had broken up
with one Jimmy, because– I was– I was seeing– seeing both of them
at the same time. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. So let’s say Jimmy McCoy is
Jimmy 1 and Jimmy [INAUDIBLE] will be Jimmy 2? How about that? So Jimmy 1 convinced you to– to lure Jimmy 2 into the woods. It was basically both– both– both minds put together. And– OPRAH WINFREY: And what were you
luring him into the woods for? Because if you were seeing
both of them at the same time, why would you want to kill them? At the time– you have to understand, I
was torn between the two. I didn’t know
which one I wanted. OK? And in that particular time,
I wanted Jimmy number 1. I know that sounds kind of– I don’t know how you– I know it sounds bad. Cold-blooded is
what it sounds. PHYLLIS: Yeah. Yeah. It’s– it’s hard to explain. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. So what did you all do? You premeditated
that– you thought about this, for how long? Not quite 24 hours. And the plan was to do what? Was the plan– the plan
was, obviously, to kill him, but to kill him, why? First of all, Jimmy
number 1 did not like him. OPRAH WINFREY: Uh huh. They– they had
a bad drug deal one time and another girlfriend
was involved at one time. It was basically that they
just didn’t like one another. And Jimmy number 1, you know,
I can’t explain his motives. You know, I don’t know– I cannot speak for him. OPRAH WINFREY: So
what did he say? What did he say to you? He said, well, let’s kill him? To go back to the conversation
that led up to the murder, I would have to say that
ideas was thrown around, robbing, beating up, murder. It was thrown around. OK, now, when it come time for
the actual murder to happen, I wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t think it
was gonna happen. That was in the back of
my mind that it would, but I wasn’t positive that
this is what is gonna happen. But it was– OPRAH WINFREY: OK. So– so you all had agreed,
you and Jimmy number 1 had agreed that you were
gonna lure Jimmy number 2 into the woods, correct? Yes.
That– So how did you get him there? What did you say? I told him that I wanted to
show him some marijuana plants. And he said, well, OK. And that’s how he
got back there. So when he got back there,
what happened, Phyllis? PHYLLIS: We was walking down– it was a trail. Like it was– it was a
road, but it had grown up. We was walking down the road. And I knew Jimmy
number 1 was in there– was in the woods somewhere,
but I didn’t know where. And I was kind of, you
know, looking around, wondering where he’s at. As we was walking down
the road, I heard a shot. At the time, I did
not think, well, this is a gun being fired at Jimmy– Jimmy number 1. I do not think that. I thought it was
somebody hunting. I heard Jimmy number 2 scream. And again, I still
actually thought, you know, he’s just playing around. And I turned around
and looked and I seen that he had been shot. And he was screaming
and he fell down. And you know, I– I started to go after
him, because, you know, I was gonna walk up to him. And as soon as I
started to move, another shot fired
and I stopped. I stood there for a few minutes. I was– well, a few seconds. I was shaking. And you know, I was– didn’t know– didn’t
know what to think, didn’t know what to do. I turned around, you
know, and I looked and I seen Jimmy
number 1 in the bushes. You know, and he was tell–
he was putting his finger over his mouth,
as this, you know, telling me not to say anything. During this time, it
seemed like forever. All I heard was Jimmy number 2
laying on the ground, moaning. I stood there and Jimmy number
1 come out of the woods. And he told– he, again,
told me not to say anything. You know? So I just stood there, for a
few minutes, one or two minutes maybe. I stood there and Jim– Jimmy number 1
walked over to him. And I guess he was going over
there to see if he was dead, you know? I suppose that’s
what he was doing. He walked over to him and
he kicked him in the head. And told him– he
said, you deserve it, you sorry son of a bleep. OPRAH WINFREY:
After he shot him, kicked him in the head,
what did you all do? My boyfriend took it– rolled him over and took
the money out of his pocket. He checked– he checked
all of his pockets for any– any drugs
and any money. After he had done that,
he– you know, he was kind– I feel he was kind
of scared, you know? Maybe– he didn’t– he
didn’t know what to do. OPRAH WINFREY: Because
how was the boyfriend? You were 14?
And how old was he? Jimmy number 1? PHYLLIS: He was 20 at the time. He was 20. OPRAH WINFREY: And Jimmy
number 2 was how old? He was 24. He was 24. He didn’t know what
to do, you know? And he was asking,
you know, what next? What next?
You know? And I just– OPRAH WINFREY: You just
ruined it for every young girl trying to date an older man. All the teenage girls out
there are saying to their mom, but Mom, he’s only 20. You just ruined it
for all of them. And maybe that’s good.
So– Good. So go ahead. Continue your story. He rolled him over,
took the money. Took the money. And you know, he said,
well, maybe we can burn it, you know, burn the body. I said, well– you
know, I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. You know, I’m still
in shock, don’t know– didn’t know– couldn’t
believe what had happened. You know, I’m still
like standing there. He took the body and
drug it into the bushes. OK? Me and Jimmy number 1
proceeded to the truck, got into the truck that
Jimmy number 2 was driving, drove to a gas station like 20– about 20 minutes away, purchased
some gasoline, come back to the site of the murder, took
the body a little farther down the road, and poured
gasoline all over the body and set the body on fire. After– You did this to somebody
who you were involved with? PHYLLIS: Yes. Who you probably had
been telling not too– too long before that you
loved and cared about. No. I never told him
that I loved him. OPRAH WINFREY: No?
– No. I didn’t do that. But he must’ve been
under the impression that you cared about him. He– I feel he thought that
I liked him a great deal. Yeah. Because you let him think that. Right. And so you sat there
and watched his body burn? Or stood there? I stood there for a few
minutes and I walked off. And I sat in the truck. That’s what I did. OPRAH WINFREY: And
then, you all left and didn’t you go to the beach? You skipped a part. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. After Jimmy number 1 realize– we both realized that
the body wasn’t gonna– you know, I guess both
of us was expecting the body to turn into ashes. You know, that’s– I guess that’s what
we was expecting. After we realized that, Jimmy
picked the body up and put it in the back of the truck, OK? Drove off to a saltwater– saltwater creek and discarded
the body into the salt water. And then, we left and went to
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. OPRAH WINFREY: What what did
you all do in Myrtle Beach? First of all, we purchased a
motorcycle with the money that was retrieved from the body. We basically– we
just– we went– we went to visit some family of mine. Acting as though this had
never happened, obviously. PHYLLIS: Right. They– they I don’t– they didn’t suspect
nothing of the sort. OPRAH WINFREY: How’d
you get caught? How did you get caught? After we had returned to
Georgia, we come to my house. And the victim’s family come
to my house that Sunday night. They come to my house
Sunday night, saying that– asking me if I’d
seen Jimmy number 2. And I lied and told them that
I had not seen him since Friday night, because they knew he was
supposed to have been with me. OPRAH WINFREY: Are you sorry? Very. You know– OPRAH WINFREY: How did this
happen to you, Phyllis? How did this happen? OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. I mean, because how
did this happen? You seemed to have
had everything going. You had loving parents. You said that. You were an A student. You were a cheerleader. How did this– how
did this happen? And how can you keep this from
happening to somebody else? Number one, don’t
get involved– or let– let me go back. Listen– you know,
listen to your parents. My father told me, he said
leave one of them boys alone. Somebody’s gonna get hurt. You know, that– those were
my father’s exact words. And I said, Daddy, you’re crazy. You don’t know what
you’re talking about. A month later, I’m
locked up for murder. You know, your
parents know what– your parents know
what is best for you. They know what
they’re talking about. Listen to your parents. And don’t– don’t get
involved with drugs. OPRAH WINFREY: Let
me ask you this. Can you believe
yourself sometimes? When you were 15 years old,
you were locked up in prison? You know, I still,
today, you know, can’t believe what happened. You know, it’s reality. I know that it actually
did, but I’m still amazed. You know, why? What happened? What went wrong? You know, I just– you know, I feel
terrible, you know. OPRAH WINFREY: Have
you apologized to– to Jimmy number 2’s parents? I have wanted to terribly,
but my lawyer instructed me not to have any contact with them. This was before the trial. OPRAH WINFREY: What do
you want to say to them? There’s nothing that
I can say that will bring Jimmy number 2 back. There’s nothing I can say
that’ll bring him back. And there’s nothing I can
say that can ease the pain, but I just want them to
know that I am truly sorry, you know? And I– I understand if
they don’t forgive me.