MADDIE CLIFTON

GBI Agent Taylor Hundley didn’t know it then, but Maddie Clifton’s murder would change her life and ultimately lead her to help make a breakthrough in one of the most notorious unsolved cases in her hometown — a case involving a little girl who died the same year Hundley was born.

Wednesday marks 23 years since one of Jacksonville’s highest-profile murders.

Maddie Clifton, 8, was murdered on Nov. 3, 1998, by her neighbor Josh Phillips, who was resentenced in November 2017 to life in prison. Phillips' life sentence will be reviewed 25 years after his original conviction. Josh Phillips in court Friday to be resentenced for the 1998 murder of Maddie Clifton. "I don't pretend to know or understand your pain or to grasp the void I created in your lives," Phillips said, addressing the Clifton family. The Clifton family has previously said their hearts go out to Phillips' family, knowing they have suffered, as well.

Justices declined to hear arguments in the appeal filed by Joshua Phillips, who was 14 at the time he murdered 8-year-old Maddie Clifton in 1998. As is common, the Supreme Court did not explain its reasons for declining to take up the case. Phillips, now 36, went to the Supreme Court in January after the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled against him in an appeal that focused on his sentence. Phillips was initially sentenced to life in prison after his conviction on a first-degree murder charge in 1999. But in a case known as Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 barred mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of murder.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A man convicted in the high-profile 1998 murder of a Jacksonville girl is appealing to the Florida Supreme Court. Joshua Phillips, who was 14 at the time he murdered 8-year-old Maddie Clifton, filed a notice Wednesday that is an initial step in appealing to the Supreme Court, according to an online docket at the 1st District Court of Appeal. A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled against Phillips last month. But in a case known as Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 barred mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of murder. “To begin with, Phillips did not receive an inescapable, irrevocable life sentence.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In one of the highest-profile cases in Jacksonville in recent decades, a state appeals court Tuesday upheld the life sentence of a neighbor convicted in the 1998 murder of 8-year-old Maddie Clifton. Joshua Phillips, who was 14 at the time he committed the murder, contended that the life sentence was unconstitutional. Phillips, now 35, was initially sentenced to life in prison after his conviction on a first-degree murder charge in 1999. But in a case known as Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 barred mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of murder. “To begin with, Phillips did not receive an inescapable, irrevocable life sentence.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Almost a week after a 5-year-old Jacksonville girl was reported missing, human remains were found during a multi-state search that led investigators to Alabama. Perhaps the most well-known case is that of Maddie Clifton, an 8-year-old girl reported missing from the Southside neighborhood in 1998. Her body was found underneath the water bed of Josh Phillips, her 14-year-old neighbor, days later. Another high-profile case unfolded just two years later in 2009 when 5-year-old HaLeigh Cummings was reported missing from her Putnam County home. The girl's body was found two days later in a Georgia landfill some 50 miles away.