Arapahoe County – The man who shot and killed his wife and provided pain pills to his daughter as part of a suicide pact was convicted today of second-degree murder and two counts of manslaughter.
Phillip Effland, 57, could have received life in prison on a premeditated-murder charge, but jurors opted for the lesser penalty, concluding drugs clouded his judgment when he killed his wife after she hadn’t died following an overdose of prescription drugs.
He faces 16 to 48 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 2.
The jury of nine women and three men convicted Effland on the manslaughter charges for assisting in the suicides of his wife, Denise, and 24-year-old daughter, Brenna.
The jury returned the verdict after about 12 hours of deliberation following closing arguments Monday morning. Prosecutor Dan May said the jury’s decision was appropriate, given the involvement of drugs.
“I thought the jury was very thoughtful,” he said.
The family had taken Phillip Effland’s painkillers on July 30, 2005, according to testimony. The three made themselves comfortable under blankets in the living room and waited to die.
When Phillip awoke at 2:30 a.m., his daughter was dead from the overdose, but his wife was still breathing, he told an investigator.
He had brought a .38 revolver from the garage, “in case something went wrong,” according to testimony. He had hidden it so as not to frighten the women.
“I promised Denise I would make sure she was dead,” he told the investigator, so he shot her twice in the head.
On Aug. 1, two sheriff’s deputies found Phillip Effland frothing on the bedroom floor.
The suicides sprang from hopelessness. The family was being evicted from the home they had rented for 10 years, and Phillip Effland had lost his job.
Phillip and Brenna Effland each suffered from severe bipolar disorder. Brenna had tried twice before to kill herself.
The family had discussed suicide before, if things ever got bad enough, and on that weekend they decided it was time, according to testimony.
The night before the suicides, Phillip Effland mailed the last of the family’s money, $465, to his other daughter. After no one had heard from them in days, sheriff’s deputies checked the home.
A note on the back door, instructed Brenna’s boyfriend not to come in, to call 911, and to give the family’s cat to Brenna’s younger sister.
In her closing argument, defense attorney Beth Turner said Phillip Effland was “not a killer.”
The only reason he was being prosecuted, she said, was because he did not die. “We’re getting into the realm of torture,” she said of the trial.
Judge Marilyn Antrim gave jurors the option of second-degree murder, if they believed Phillip Effland’s decision to shoot his wife was prompted by the pills he had taken to kill himself.
Antrim had instructed jurors not to allow sympathy for Phillip Effland or beliefs about suicide influence their decisions.
But, May said today, “There wasn’t anybody in the courtroom who didn’t think it was an incredibly sad and tragic story.”
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
