Churchville man to attend preliminary hearing on murder charges

A Churchville man who allegedly strangled his girlfriend to death and stuffed her into the back of his Toyota 4 Runner will attend his preliminary hearing today.

Authorities with the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office charged Timothy Aaron Wilkins, 39, with first-degree murder in June.

Investigators said the killing happened outside Wilkins’ secluded single-story home on Lismore Lane.

Deputies arrested him in the Food Lion parking lot in Verona after responding to a 911 call that led to the discovery of Misty M. Phillips, 36, of Staunton,  in the rear cargo area of Wilkins’ sport utility vehicle.

Phillips and Wilkins had a six-year relationship, authorities said. It was a pairing marked by tumultuous nights, neighbors said.

Showing up on doorsteps in the middle of the night, sometimes toting a bottle of alcohol, Phillips complained that she feared for her safety and fretted that Wilkins carried a gun, neighbors said.

Phillips had been charged six times for public intoxication.

While incarcerated at Middle River Regional Jail, Wilkins was considered a suicide risk, authorities said, and jail officials brought a charge against him after he allegedly climbed a sink and destroyed the sprinkler system in his cell.

Before the murder charge, Wilkins previously faced charges of carrying a concealed weapon and drug possession, but was not convicted, according to county records.

In one March 2005 incident, he was charged for threatening a pre-teen girl with a laser-sighted .45-caliber gun, according to court records.

“My mom and Tim were fighting,” the girl said in a statement to police. “Then he went upstairs and got one of his guns that had a little red thing, and he was trying to make the red light touch my chest.”