PHILADELPHIA, PA – Keith Phillips has been convicted of first-degree murder in the 2019 shooting death of Nasir Sadat on a North Philadelphia street outside a property that the victim was renovating, according to an announcement by Attorney General Michelle Henry.
A Philadelphia County jury found Phillips, 31, guilty of first-degree murder for killing Sadat, and he has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In addition to the murder conviction, Phillips has received an aggregate sentence on the additional charges of 17 ½ to 35 years of incarceration to run consecutively.
The evidence presented at trial showed that Phillips shot and killed Sadat for hire, for which he received $4,500 from a local drug dealer.
Video evidence presented at trial showed that, on July 5, 2019, Phillips arrived at a location in North Philadelphia not far from where Sadat and another man were wounded and fled the shooting scene on a bike while holding a gun in his hand. Cellphone evidence also confirmed Phillips was at the scene of the shooting.
The wounded men were both transported to Temple University Hospital, where Sadat was pronounced dead. Phillips messaged a friend on Instagram after the shootings that he “just drilled” someone and had previously posted that he is a “killer” and bragged about killing up to twenty people on that account. Investigators also used Phillips’ social media account to confirm the clothes he was wearing in the video at the time of the shootings.
Attorney General Henry praised the hard work of investigators, prosecutors, and law enforcement partners, saying that the evidence led to the only possible conclusion: Keith Phillips is a cold-blooded killer. She added that she was proud of their efforts, which ensured that this very dangerous individual would be off the streets of Philadelphia and the citizens would be safe from him.