New case follows McIntosh County plea deal
Phillips appeared in Pittsburg County court last week, FOX23 reported on Nov. 12. The case began while he was still serving his sentence in McIntosh County in a separate case involving Kolbash. His preliminary hearing in Pittsburg County is scheduled for Dec. 10.
In the McIntosh County case, prosecutors dropped a kidnapping charge as part of a plea agreement. Phillips, who had also been charged with pointing a gun at Kolbash, was convicted on two gun charges and received probation and an additional 150 days in jail.
Kolbash described the punishment she wanted as a "real sentence." She told FOX23: "I do not feel like the victim is taken into consideration at all. It's all about his rights."
According to FOX23/KOKH reporting, Kolbash said Assistant District Attorney Gregory R. Stidham had discussed different terms with her. She said he told her that, if prosecutors could use the Missouri case to establish a pattern in McIntosh County, they would offer Phillips five years in jail, five years' probation and a 10-year order barring contact with her. Those terms were not part of the final agreement, she said.
A Pittsburg County sergeant told FOX23 that Phillips will remain in McIntosh County until he completes the 150-day sentence, then be transferred to the Pittsburg County jail. Deputies will transport him to any Pittsburg County court appearances scheduled before that transfer.
Kolbash's account and the Missouri arrest
Kolbash said Phillips kept her captive for five hours. Eufaula police found him with a .32-caliber handgun and two magazines, according to court documents. Asked by FOX23 what she believed he intended to do, she replied, "I thought I was done." Asked whether she thought he would kill her, she said, "Absolutely."
After escaping, Kolbash said, she sought a protective order and went to Missouri. Phillips later crossed state lines and located her, she said. "I had no doubt he was there to finish the job," she told FOX23.
Rosebud police arrested Phillips across the street from her apartment and reported finding a sawed-off shotgun and a box of ammunition. The Gasconade County Republican's May 1, 2024, account identified him as Richard A. Phillips, then 58, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
That report, citing Rosebud Police Chief Lynde Mantels, said officers stopped Phillips near the victim's residence on April 27, 2024. A sawed-off, short-barreled shotgun in his vehicle had a round in the chamber. Authorities charged him with violating a protective order and unlawfully possessing an illegal weapon. He was held at the Osage County jail in Linn on a $100,000 cash-only bond.
Before his return to Oklahoma, Phillips pleaded guilty in Missouri to transporting an illegal weapon and violating a protective order, FOX23/KOKH reported. The outlet described the Missouri and McIntosh County cases as resulting in two felony convictions tied to Kolbash, one in each state.
When FOX23 approached Phillips outside court and asked whether he had planned to kill Kolbash, he responded, "I'm not answering. You're wasting your time."
Other allegations reported by FOX23
In September 2025, FOX23 reported on a protective order that another former wife had filed against Phillips in 2021, alleging that he threatened her life.
The same report included an allegation from Katie Shepherd, who said she believed Phillips might have been involved in her mother Pamela Halls' death in 2018. Bixby Police said they investigated but lacked enough evidence to file charges. Phillips has not been charged in connection with Halls' death.
Kolbash questions her own charge and prosecutors' response
Kolbash also told FOX23 that a misdemeanor charge remains on her McIntosh County record. She said that after Phillips' arrest, she asked the Eufaula marina manager for permission to collect her belongings from the houseboat where the couple had lived. Phillips subsequently accused her from jail of breaking in and taking his possessions, she said.
Authorities arrested Kolbash on a felony burglary charge, which prosecutors later reduced to misdemeanor breaking and entering. She said she must now pay to pursue expungement and questioned why her court-appointed lawyer had not raised that issue in court.
FOX23 sought a response from Stidham, who handled the case, by calling the McIntosh County District Attorney's Office. He was unavailable. A staff member said he did not use email, so FOX23 emailed her instead. She told the station she printed the message, put it on his desk and confirmed that he had seen it. He had not returned the station's call by the time of its report.
District Attorney Carol Iski also had not responded to two emails from FOX23 requesting a call back.
Kolbash acknowledged prosecutors' heavy caseloads but said they still need to be held accountable. "Until somebody shakes the tree and starts making these people accountable for what they're doing, it's not going to change," she said.
State figures and concerns about release
Oklahoma's domestic violence homicide toll reached 122 victims in 2023, the state Attorney General's Office reported on Feb. 20, 2025. That was a 16 percent increase from the previous year and the highest annual total since the state's Fatality Review Board started collecting data in 2002. Women accounted for 82 percent of intimate partner homicide victims.
Separately, FOX23 reported that 49.2 percent of women in Oklahoma will report domestic violence during their lifetime.
Kolbash said she remains worried about what will happen when Phillips leaves jail. "It's real scary to think that somebody has that kind of control over your life," she said.
She encouraged people in abusive situations to contact organizations that can help and begin planning to leave. "I know that's really scary to leave and dangerous to leave," she said. "But for your sake and maybe your children's sake, start making a plan."
