A Bell County, Texas grand jury indicted a Fort Hood soldier this week after police said he shot and killed his 34-year-old girlfriend earlier this year.
Spc. Michael Leonard Moore, 35, an Army plumber, received a first-degree felony charge of murder on Wednesday. He has been held in the Bell County Jail on a $1 million bond of $1 million since being taken into custody on Sept. 21.
News of the indictment was previously reported by the Killeen (Texas) Daily Herald newspaper.
A sergeant with Moore’s unit found the body of Phyllis Campbell, 34, on September 19 in a two-story townhouse they shared at 1109 Wales Drive. This was after Moore had allegedly confessed to Killeen police that he had killed her, according to the arrest affidavit, the Herald reported.
Moore enlisted in the Army in October 2019 and was assigned to the 68th Engineer Construction Company at Fort Hood, base officials told Military.com in September.
Moore told police that his girlfriend threatened him with a knife and that he had, “packed some things” to leave. But instead of leaving, Moore went back inside the bedroom and sat on the bed waiting. He allegedly had a firearm hidden under a comforter in his lap, according to the affidavit.
Moore told police he shot at Campbell multiple times when she entered the room, police said. According to Moore’s account, when he walked up to his girlfriend while she was on the floor, she told him, “You shot me,” and he, ‘” shot her again.”’
“I shouldn’t have done it,” Moore told officers.
Earlier reports noted inconsistencies in Moore’s retelling of events.
Moore told police he shot his Campbell when she reached the bedroom’s television set, located nearly halfway between the bedroom entrance and closet, The Herald reported in September.
But, according to documents obtained by KDH, if Moore shot his girlfriend when she reached the TV, there should therefore be bullet holes in the wall opposite the bed and below the TV, police said.
Though police investigators noted that bullet holes were around the television.
Police reported the bullets had instead pierced the open bedroom door and then into the wall behind the door, The Herald reported.
In addition, detectives noted possible soot or searing around more than one gunshot wound on his girlfriend’s body, suggesting that his girlfriend was closer than described when Moore shot her.
Immediately after the shooting, Moore contacted an Army sergeant twice that same night, according to court records. The sergeant told police Moore had contacted him at 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 19, and asked if he could stay the night. The sergeant did not immediately respond and instead contacted Moore at 5:30 a.m.
Moore met with the sergeant, who was not identified in media reports, and told him that he had shot and killed his girlfriend, according to the affidavit.
The sergeant traveled with Moore to the Wales Drive residence to see if he was telling the truth about killing his girlfriend. Once there, the sergeant, “observed a body at the top of the stairs, where police later found (Campbell) in a pool of blood,” according to court records.