A weeklong search for a man accused of gunning down his father-in-law inside a small Escambia County church ended on a Texas interstate, according to authorities in both states.
Investigators say 69-year-old Paul Phillips was shot at least once with a shotgun in late October at a rural holiness church near the Florida state line. Phillips died at the scene. Within hours, Escambia County deputies identified a suspect: Phillips’ son-in-law, 46-year-old Brett Richard Yeiter.
Yeiter left the area shortly after the shooting, prompting a multi-state search that stretched for several days. Investigators eventually tracked him more than 900 miles away, into the Texas Panhandle. Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety stopped Yeiter’s vehicle on Interstate 40 near Amarillo, confirming he matched the description of the wanted man from Alabama.
“He was still driving the same vehicle he left the area in,” Escambia County Sheriff Grover Smith said of the arrest, crediting cooperation between agencies across state lines for closing in on Yeiter before he could travel farther.
Yeiter was booked into the Carson County Jail in Texas, where he remained held awaiting a hearing on extradition back to Alabama to face a homicide charge. Formal charges were expected to be filed once he is returned to Escambia County custody.
The shooting rattled the small community surrounding the church, where Phillips was known among neighbors. Rural congregations in that corner of the county, tucked along back roads near the Florida line, tend to be tightly knit, and news of a killing inside a house of worship traveled quickly among residents.
Escambia County investigators said the case remained active even after the arrest, as they worked to build the evidence needed for prosecution once Yeiter returns to Alabama. Extradition proceedings between states can take days to weeks depending on whether a suspect challenges the process.
Officials asked anyone with additional information about the events leading up to the shooting to contact the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. The case underscored the reach of interstate cooperation in rural violent crime investigations, with Alabama authorities working alongside Texas troopers hundreds of miles from the scene of the shooting to bring a suspect back to face charges.