A 14-year-old boy left a heartbreaking voicemail on his friend's phone moments before he was killed by a fire the two had ignited inside a vacant building.
Joe Phillips and his 13-year-old friend entered a tire recycling complex in Lockport, New York, in August 2016 and ignited some paper before the flames quickly spread out of control.
The 13-year-old ran outside to get water while Phillips used his shirt to try to tamp down the blaze, according to defense attorney A. Angelo DiMillo.
As the fire spread, Phillips called his friend in a panic, and said: 'I'm really stuck, dude, I'm (expletive). I'm (expletive) going to die.'
Then panting, with resignation in his voice, 'Sorry, dude. I love you, man,' the call ended. 'I never thought I'd die this way.'
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Joe Phillips (pictured) left a heartbreaking voicemail on his friend's phone moments before he was consumed by a fire the two had set off inside a vacant building
Phillips and his 13-year-old friend entered a tire recycling complex in Lockport, New York, in August 2016 and ignited some paper (pictured) before the flames quickly spread out of control
The 13-year-old ran outside to get water while Joe tried to tamp down the blaze. As the fire spread, Phillips called his friend in a panic and said: 'I never though I'd die this way'
On Tuesday, the surviving teen, now 14, will learn his fate in Family Court.
He could be sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention facility after pleading guilty in March to arson and burglary as part of a deal that erased a charge of criminally negligent homicide in his friend's death.
The boy, whose name has not been released because of his age, has been in and out of the hospital with mental health issues and has tried to harm himself, a probation officer testified this month.
Phillips' mother, Ann Phillips, won't say what punishment she thinks the surviving teenager, who never called 911, deserves. Reached by phone, she said she wants to keep her feelings private until after the hearing.
The mother believes her son's friend ignored his last phone call and told WIVB: 'He saw Joe in that burning building, he knew it was burning, he ran out.
'You can’t tell me that you didn’t get that phone call until later, that you didn’t know. You did know. And you left them there.'
Along with the phone message played in court earlier this year, video found on the surviving teen's phone offered a view into the building that day. Pictured, the shoes of the two boys
On August 10, 2016, the fire at High Tread International filled the sky with thick black smoke. It burned for three days, and fire crews had to use water from the nearby Erie Canal to douse the flames. About 200 homes were evacuated.
The fire burned through 15 acres of property, and cost more than $13million in damages, according to Niagara County attorney John Sansone.
Phillips' family feared he'd been trapped by the fire but held out hope the boy who was just weeks away from beginning high school had made it to safety.
'He might be scared and he's hiding to avoid getting into trouble,' his older sister Alyssa Phillips wrote on Facebook as the fire burned for the second of three days.
'Until I see his dead body, I will keep believing he's alive,' Alyssa wrote, before firefighters found Joe's body on August 13.
Along with the phone message played in court earlier this year, video found on the surviving teen's phone offered a view into the building that day.
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The fire at High Tread International filled the sky with thick black smoke. It burned for three days, and fire crews had to use water from the nearby Erie Canal to douse the flames
About 200 homes were evacuated and Phillips was missing for a few days until his body was found in August 13
It shows a fire escape the teens used to get inside. They walk though darkened rooms using a lighter to ignite papers and watch them burn.
The video and phone message, obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information request, were first reported by Buffalo television station WIVB.
'This is how you make, like, a real big fire,' one of the boys is heard saying while video shows papers curling into brightening flames.
'Oh, it's going to spread out. Oh, it's so cool,' the other boy says.
Ann Phillips, who cried when her son's final phone call was played in court, says it doesn't surprise her that her son used his final moments to express his love to a friend.
'Joe liked everybody,' she said. 'There's not anybody that he didn't like....He was the type of kid who wanted to be friends with everybody.'
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