By Daniel Lapham/Staff Writer
published March 19, 2008

A Geary man is being held in Canadian County Jail with no bail in connection with two charges of manufacturing a plan to have his wife and her father killed, according to state law enforcement officials.

David Wayne Phillips, 39, 12750 W. Chisholm Road in Geary, is charged with two counts of solicitation for murder in the first degree for trying to hire a hit man to kill his wife, Michele Phillips, and her father, Martin Bass, court documents show.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Phillips around 3 p.m. Sunday, Canadian County Sheriff Lewis Hawkins said.

Bass is a Canadian County sheriff’s deputy, said Paul Hesse, Canadian County assistant district attorney.

Phillips contacted an acquaintance and asked him to contact a hit man to kill his wife and her father, said Jessica Brown, OSBI spokeswoman.

“He and his wife were going through a divorce,” Brown said. “The middleman contacted law enforcement when he began to realize this was more than just words, the suspect wanted action.”