Lexington police charge woman with murder for Friday night homicide on Dakota Street

A woman is charged with murder in connection to a homicide that took place last Friday on Dakota Street.

Sheri Phillips, 35, was arrested Thursday for murder and being a felon in possession of a handgun, according to the Lexington Police Department.

On May 17, police were called to the 700 block of Dakota Street, where they found 50-year-old Russell Houston dead from a gunshot wound. Phillips’ arrest citation says she caused the death of Houston with a firearm.

Phillips is currently being held in the Fayette County Detention Center. Additional charges of drug trafficking were issued against Phillips on Friday, after police located her at the 400 block of Morrison Avenue, according to her police citation.

Phillips was located after police said she “matched the description” of a suspect in another crime that occurred, court records state. When police searched Phillips they located grams-worth of suspected methamphetamine and crack cocaine on the ground nearby.

Phillips is being held on a $1 million bond for the murder charge and a $20,000 bond on one of the drug trafficking charges, according to jail records.

This is the fifth homicide in Lexington this year,. Three of the five homicides include an arrest.

In 2023 Lexington reported 24 homicides, fewer than the record-breaking year of 2022, when 44 killings took place. The last time Lexington reported 24 or fewer homicides in a year was in 2018, according to Lexington police data, which dates back to 2008.