The Dorchester man accused of stabbing 24-year-old Gregory Phillips to death was arrested when he “went back to retrieve his knife just after 2:15 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2009,” a Suffolk County homicide prosecutor said today during opening statements in the man’s murder trial.

COREY PATTERSON (D.O.B. 11/5/86) is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of assault and battery on a public employee for allegedly plunging a knife into Patterson’s chest near the intersection of Harvard and Brighton avenues after an altercation that began as a local nightclub was letting out for the evening.

Assistant District Attorney Gretchen Lundgren told a Suffolk Superior Court jury that Phillips and Patterson were at the Kells on Brighton Avenue that night and early morning, each in separate parties with separate groups of friends. The two groups only encountered each other after the establishment closed and Patterson began “hitting on and then harassing” one of Phillips’ female friends; that young woman rebuffed his attention, Lundgren said.

“The defendant began to use rude, offensive, vulgar language,” Lundgren said, prompting another one of Phillips’ friends to step in. That man suggested they settle the matter around the corner, she told the court.

“I love it when stuff like this happens,” Patterson allegedly said.

The two groups made their way around the corner from the Kells. Trailing behind them all was Phillips, “who hadn’t said a word to the defendant,” Lundgren said.

Patterson and Phillips’ friend squared off and scuffled, the prosecutor said. At some point, Patterson “bore down” on Phillips, who was on the periphery of the group. Lundgren said witnesses saw the defendant make contact with the victim in a motion that appeared to be a shove – at which point Phillips’ white shirt “became increasingly red with blood.”

Patterson tossed the weapon – a folding knife depicted on a viewing screen for jurors throughout the prosecutor’s opening – beneath a jeep before fleeing with his group. As they drove away, though, Patterson allegedly demanded that they return to the scene.

“It was the defendant who insisted his cousin drive him past the ambulance, past the police officers, to retrieve the knife,” Lundgren said. “He explained that people had seen him. He explained that the knife had his prints on it.”

Patterson allegedly took off his hat and outer layers of clothing to change his appearance when he went to get the knife. Police at the scene had heard about the incident and were on their way to guard the knife when Patterson allegedly grabbed it.

“It took six police officers to subdue the defendant, who refused to give up the knife,” she said.
Phillips was stabbed in the right ventricle of his heart, a fatal injury that claimed his life at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center later that morning.

Jennifer Sears is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Lundgren is prosecuting the case with Assistant District Attorney Patrick Devlin. The defendant is represented by attorneys Asha White and Rudolph Miller. Prosecution testimony is ongoing before Judge Raymond Brassard in courtroom 817 of Suffolk Superior Court.