The New Orleans woman was seated with her defense lawyer in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court when another woman ran toward her to attack.
Passing the nearest deputy, Angel Dounseroux allegedly “made contact” with the defendant, before another deputy restrained her, Casey McGee of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office tells PEOPLE.
The courtroom disruption occurred in the midst of a plea and victim impact statement hearing in which Shanyka A. Phillips admitted to helping her boyfriend elude authorities after he set fire to his home, killing his three young children inside.
On Monday, Aug. 12, Phillips pleaded guilty to two counts of accessory after the fact, according to her online docket.
It was a courtroom scene that had played out similarly just months earlier when the children’s father, Joseph Washington, Sr., admitted in April to killing his children late last year, following a domestic dispute. (Moments after he entered his guilty plea, a woman related to the children burst from the gallery and descended on Washington, knocking him to the floor, as additional relatives jumped on top.)
On Monday, ignoring the judge’s warning against any disturbances, Dounseroux, the children’s aunt, physically attacked Phillips, who was in handcuffs, according to Phillips’ lawyer, Stas Moroz.
“We understand that this process is extremely difficult for the Dounseroux family,” Moroz said in an email to PEOPLE. “Our hope is that everyone involved begins a process of healing.”
Judge Kimya M. Holmes held Dounseroux, 28, in contempt of court, per the online docket, and sentenced her to 24 hours in Orleans Parish Prison.
McGee tells PEOPLE that two additional deputies were “on hand” – totaling four in the courtroom – “in anticipation of any potential disruptions.”
One deputy sustained an injury to her finger in the ensuing tussle, according to McGee, who said that the deputies ultimately restrained the woman and escorted her from court “to ensure no further incidents.”
Joseph Washington, Sr. in mugshot.
Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office
Just before midnight Oct. 17, 2023, the children’s mother dialed 911, telling the operator that Washington was threatening to burn down their home, according to the New Orleans Police Department.
“I hear the kids screaming,” the mother – who was not home at the time – said on the call, per WVUE. “Y’all are just going to have to break through the door. Don’t let anything happen, please.”
The home was “engulfed in flames,” when police arrived.
Firefighters came upon Joseph Washington, Jr., 8, and Jayla Washington, 5 – who were still alive – near the front of the home, one of them “just a few feet from the front door,” according to the New Orleans Fire Department.
Further inside, three-year-old Avery Washington was already dead.
The other siblings were both rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to their injuries about an hour later, per police.
The following day, investigators found Washington’s vehicle “partially submerged” in the Mississippi River, according to police.
New Orleans officers and U.S. Marshals came upon Washington – on an interstate overpass, attempting “to flee by jumping off” – later that day and arrested him.
In an email to PEOPLE, Phillips’ lawyer referred to Washington as “her abusive boyfriend,” saying that she “had no knowledge of Mr. Washington’s crimes until after the fact.”
Moroz said that Phillips’ charges stem from her actions about four hours after Washington set the fatal fire, when she picked him up “in a neighboring parish and drove him back to New Orleans, while there was an active police search for him.”
Washington “made multiple threats,” telling her “that he was going to kill himself,” per Moroz.
“By the time that Ms. Phillips learned that Mr. Washington set the house on fire, emergency responders had already responded to the scene of this crime,” he added.
Phillips was previously convincted of simple battery in a 2018 case, per a previous court docket. In 2020, she was charged in a case on counts including domestic abuse child endangerment and domestic abuse battery. Prosecutors ultimately did not proceed with that case, per that court docket, which notes that the protective order against her was dissolved.
Phillips is slated for sentencing on Thursday, Aug. 15.
