Tests tie suspect to death of woman at motel

Keith Paul

Wednesday, May 16, 2001 | 10:37 a.m.

Prosecutors say DNA tests confirm blood on the clothes of a man accused of running down a trooper during a high-speed chase came from a woman found brutally beaten and strangled in a motel room.

The DNA results provide the most recent evidence linking Vornelius Phillips, 25, and the slaying of 40-year-old Ivy Jean Miller, Metro Police say.

"He (Phillips) suffered no injuries in the pursuit but had blood on his clothing," Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas said. "The blood was tested, and the DNA testing confirmed it was her blood."

Miller, identified by police as Ivy Shunstrom, was found about 9:30 a.m. April 21 in her room at the Budget Suites on Stardust Road. She was badly beaten.

A homicide detective, in a report filed in Clark County District Court described the room in which Miller was found. He wrote, "blood covers the walls and floor, and a bloody palm print is found on one of the walls."

Miller, a California woman who was said to be a prostitute by some who knew her from the motel, died from strangulation and repeated blows on the head, according to the report.

A fingerprint found on a piece of evidence recovered from the room was identified as Phillips', and the bloody palm print on the wall was determined to have been made by Phillips' right hand, Detective David Mesinar wrote in the report.

Phillips has been charged with murder in connection with Miller's slaying, in addition to other felony charges stemming from the high-speed pursuit on April 21 in which Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Robert "Bobby" Kintzel was struck. Psychologists are examining Phillips, a California parolee, to determine whether he is competent to stand trial.

A tourist staying in the room above Miller's told police he was awakened by rumbling sounds coming from the room below him between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. April 21. He said,"the disturbance escalated to the point where he could hear the sound of pounding on the walls and furniture being upset," according to the report.

Phillips was identified by a bus driver, who said a man boarded a Citizens Area Transit bus about 7:25 a.m. April 21 and asked to be taken to the airport. When the driver stopped at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the next stop, Phillips got off and tried to hail a cab, according to the report.

About 10 minutes later a cab driver picked up a man at the convention center and took him to the airport, "where he commandeered a second cab containing a tourist who had just been taken to the airport," according to the report.

The cab driver identified Phillips as the man he took the airport.

Phillips got behind the wheel of the second cab about 7:55 a.m. and sped off. This started a series of events in which 59-year-old Joan Lewis, a tourist from Maryland, and Kintzel, were injured. Kintzel remains in critical condition in University Medical Center. A website dedicated to Kintzel's recovery has daily entries on his progress. The address is: www.caringbridge.com/nv/bobby/index.htm

Lewis, who was in the back seat of the cab as the driver drove off, later jumped out when Phillips refused neither to stop nor allow her to get out, police said.

When traffic slowed because of another accident, Phillips allegedly approached another driver and forced his way behind the wheel of an sport utility vehicle. The driver escaped the truck.

The chase then continued on Interstate 215 toward Henderson and included officers from Henderson, Boulder City, Metro and the National Park Service police.

Phillips is accused of running over Kintzel as the trooper was placing metal spikes to puncture the tires of Phillips' fleeing vehicle on U.S. 95 near Flamingo Road about 8:30 a.m. April 21. After Kintzel was hit, a Metro Police officer rammed the stolen SUV to end the chase.

Miller's body had not been discovered at the time of the chase.