In the spring of 1994, the life of Robert William 'Robbie' Phillips, a 24-year-old white male, was tragically cut short in Nashville, Tennessee. He and his 28-year-old wife, Kelli Jean Gifford Phillips, were discovered murdered on March 7 in their motel room. The couple had recently relocated to Nashville from California, filled with hopes for Robbie's burgeoning career as a country musician.
Their dream turned into a nightmare after an evening at a local bar where they are believed to
have crossed paths with a man named Tom Steeples. Investigators later pieced together that Steeples was the individual who accompanied the couple back to their Econo Lodge motel. The scene discovered by authorities was one of brutal violence; both Robbie and Kelli had been bludgeoned to death. Evidence at the scene also indicated that Kelli had been sexually assaulted and had ligature marks on her wrists, painting a grim picture of their final moments.
The investigation into the double homicide soon connected their case to another recent murder in Nashville. Months earlier, in October 1993, Ronnie Bingham, the 46-year-old owner of the Corral Club bar, had been found shot to death and his body set on fire inside his establishment. A witness had placed a man named Tom at the bar with Bingham on the night of his death. As the investigation into the Phillips' murders progressed, DNA evidence linked Tom Steeples to the motel room slayings.
With mounting evidence against him, Tom Steeples was arrested and charged with the murders of Robbie Phillips, Kelli Phillips, and Ronnie Bingham. However, before he could stand trial for the three killings, Steeples was found dead in his jail cell on August 10, 1994. His death was ruled a suicide, caused by a cocaine-induced heart attack. A subsequent investigation revealed that the lethal dose of drugs had been smuggled into the jail by his wife, Tillie Steeples. She was later convicted for her role in his death and sentenced to prison, bringing a strange and final twist to a tragic series of events that ended the lives of three people, including an aspiring young musician and his wife who had just begun their new life in Music City.
