FOX19.com and FOX19 News, weather, traffic, and sports for Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky | Prosecutors want to keep cop killer behind bars

Prosecutors want to keep cop killer behind bars

By Brad Underwood - bio | email
Posted by Trina Edwards - email

MORROW, OH (FOX19) - A man who killed a Morrow police officer 22 years ago is up for parole, and there's a fight to keep him behind bars.

Anthony McIntosh was convicted of murder for killing patrolman Jeffrey Phegley with a shot gun on Welch Road in Warren County.

"Since there's no way of bringing Officer Phegley back, I don't believe he should be getting out of prison," said Chief John Reynolds with the Maineville Police Department.

Reynolds worked with Phegley, and was a part of the search for McIntosh the night of the murder. Phegley wasn't wearing a bullet-proof vest that day because he gave it to a fellow officer.

"Jeff gave his bullet proof vest to my brother and said give this to your brother, let him use it. He works everyday, I only work part time out in Morrow, not much is going to happen out there," recalled Reynolds. "I heard on the news that night he had been shot and killed and just sat there and it made you hollow inside. Had he been wearing his own vest that day, perhaps he had not died."

The Warren County Sheriff's Office wants opponents of McIntosh's release to voice their opinion by writing to the parole board at 770 West Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43222.

And Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel released this statement, "McIntosh was a murderer who senselessly took the life a young officer. In committing this heinous act, McIntosh showed a complete disrespect for authority and human life, and should be punished as such."

McIntosh's second parole hearing is set for January 2010.