A professional mixed martial artist who confessed to killing his fiancée during an argument over his drug use has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.
On Monday, Feb. 3, Philip Keller, 43, of Merritt Island, Fla., pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, grand theft, fraudulent use of a credit card and tampering with evidence in connection with the 2021 death of Alicia “Red” Campitelli, 35, the Office of the State Attorney for the 18th Judicial Circuit said in a statement.
As part of the deal with prosecutors, Keller agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder instead of the original charge of first-degree murder in 2021, ClickOrlando reports.
The murder charge carried a 25-year minimum mandatory sentence, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
Deputies found Campitelli, a popular piercing artist, dead in her Merritt Island apartment on May 15, 2021, after Keller called 911 saying she had been shot, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“I need help immediately, it looks like she’s dead,” he said, ClickOrlando reports. “Oh my God. It looks like she’s been shot and been robbed, my house has been robbed.”
Six days later, on May 21, 2021, Keller was arrested after jumping into a nearby creek while trying to flee from authorities, the sheriff’s office said at the time.
After Keller was arrested, he confessed to murdering Campitelli, according to an affidavit obtained by ClickOrlando.
Alicia ‘Red’ Campitelli. Facebook
He told deputies that on Friday, May 14, he and Campitelli were arguing about his drug use when he shot at her three times with her gun, striking her twice, the affidavit says.
After the shooting, he used her debit card to withdraw money to buy drugs and threw the gun into a canal, police said.
Shortly before his arrest, Keller confessed to a friend that he killed Campitelli during a call the friend allowed police to record, the affidavit says.
“I killed her bro, I killed her high as [expletive],” Keller said during the recorded conversation, according to the affidavit. “I did it. I don’t know how I did it, but I can’t live with myself knowing that. I’m a piece of [expletive]. I was super high on Molly.”
He later said, “I shot her the first time and missed through a towel, and she ducked her head, and I shot her twice in the back of the head in cold blood. I did it, I’m so [expletive] sorry man.”
During the sentencing hearing, Campitelli’s friends and family tearfully spoke about how traumatic her death was for all of them, Florida Today reports.
“Our hearts are so broken every day,” Campitelli’s mother, Debra Moore, said in court. “We still hear her laugh at our family gatherings. It was not just the end of her life. It was the end of our family’s life.”
Campitelli’s twin sister, Alana May Marshall-Campitelli, told the court she can’t stop thinking about her sister’s last moments.
“I can still hear her cries,” she said, Florida Today reports. “I can feel her terror. Keller did not just end one life but he destroyed so many others as well.”
