DC man will spend rest of his life in prison for kidnapping, abusing partner for days in NE apartment

WASHINGTON — A D.C. man will spend the rest of his life in prison for holding his intimate partner in a Northeast apartment for days while he abused her and tried to break her will with drugs.

Bryant Phillips, 54, was convicted by a jury in March on seven counts, including two counts of first-degree sex abuse, kidnapping, and assault with a dangerous weapon. On Friday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Anthony C. Epstein sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole, plus 30 years, in addition to a lifetime of supervised release. Phillips will also have to register as a sex offender.

According to an affidavit filed when Phillips was arrested in 2022, between June 5 and June 8 of that year he held a woman against her will in an apartment in D.C.’s Trinidad neighborhood while physically and sexually abusing her. The victim told police days earlier Phillips had threatened to leave her in the middle of the woods in rural Prince George’s County after she had refused to marry him.

While held in the house, the victim told police Phillips assaulted her with a belt and an iron and repeatedly forced her to smoke crack cocaine, telling her he was going to “break you down with drugs” and get her addicted so that when she wanted a fix in the future she would come to him. The victim was eventually able to contact police after Phillips allowed her to leave to go to work.

Phillips was arrested by DC Police in July 2022 and denied bond. In November 2022, Phillips rejected a plea offer from the government and chose instead to go to trial.

Phillips’ case was investigated by members of the DC Police Sexual Assault Unit and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.