A bit of almost-local news for you. Robert Phillips and his girlfriend Julia Shaw live in Ballground, Georgia. That’s a couple of hours north of where I am. Ballground is famous in Georgia for being a quick-serve marriage town, or at least it used to be. I don’t really know if it’s quite as easy as it used to be but the wife and I almost drove up to Ballground to get married until cooler wiser heads prevailed and talked us into having an actual wedding.
It’s also a smaller, rural town in North Georgia but like small towns everywhere it has the same share of schmucks and assholes that big cities do. Just ask Julia Shaw, once she gets out of the hospital anyway.
Anyway, Shaw and Phillips got into it on New Years Eve. I don’t know if there was drinking or not but it’s a pretty safe bet that old Robert was pretty tore up. What the hell else is there to do in Ballground on New Years eve besides drinking cheap beer and beating your old lady anyway? That’s exactly what Robert did. Witnesses to the crime said that they saw a man covered in blood standing over Shaw lying in the road before he took off. They did manage to get a license plate though, which was given to law enforcement when they showed up.
Within a few hours 46-year-old Robert Phillips was arrested in a nearby county on charges of aggravated battery, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit murder. Considering that Julia Shaw is on life support with a fractured skull and internal injuries it’s quite possible that murder charges will be added to the list.
Phillips is no stranger to the law either. Back in 2007 he was convicted of battery, criminal damage to property and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (which means even more earlier convictions). Shaw was the victim in those crimes as well. Not to disparage any hope for the victim but that pretty much makes her a dumbass as well for staying with the piece of crap. I understand battered wife syndrome and all of that but I still believe that the things we do and the choices we make are ours so if you are planning on posting comments on how she didn’t have a choice, you might as well stop now.
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I knew Julia. She was the older sister of my high school boyfriend, who coincidentally murdered Julia’s second husband, Kyle, spent near 10 years in prison, and then himself was killed in a car accident on New Year’s Eve five years ago. Julia’s first husband committed suicide. I don’t know what happened with her third, but she was with him at her brother’s funeral, which was the last time I saw her.
Julia was removed life support January 3rd. She left behind three children, one of whom now has NO parents at all, and her own parents are pure gold people who have now buried two of their three children.
I’m sure if you were murdered, you would not want your children or your friends or your parents to come across a blog post where the blogger calls you a dumbass for being murdered. Yes, she made some bad choices in her life, don’t we all?
It really sucks that she’s passed on and you have my condolences for the loss of your friend but I have to stand by my original statement.Getting victimized is a horrible thing but not removing yourself from a situation where you can be victimized a second or third time makes it your fault.
My name is Ashley I am Jesse’s girlfriend. Jesse is Julia’s middle son and whoever wrote this is sick and has no clue what this family has been through and what they are having to go through. How about a little respect