Law&Crime Sidebar - 911 Call Exposes MMA Fighter for Fiancée’s Murder

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Former professional MMA fighter Phillip Keller is behind bars after pleading guilty to the murder of his fiancée, Alicia “Red” Campitelli, just months before their wedding. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the shocking case, from Keller’s suspicious 911 call and bizarre actions the morning of the murder, to his eventual confession that sealed his fate, with criminal defense attorney David Shapiro.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I need help immediately. It looks like she's dead. A young woman is found in a pool of blood inside of her apartment, shot through the eye. Her fiancé frantically called 911, but the story he told dispatchers quickly unraveled. And investigators followed a damning trail of evidence straight back to him. The apparent motive behind this cold-blooded killing is shocking, and you will not believe what the killer did right after.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. 9-1-1, what's the address of the emergency? Hello? Hello, this is 911. What is the address of the emergency? I need help immediately. It looks like she's dead. Okay, what is the address? Oh, my God. I just, I just kind of hold up. All right, let me put you over to our fire and rescue in case there's help, okay?

Hold on one moment. Oh, my God. A former professional mixed martial artist is behind bars instead of in the octagon after he pleaded guilty in connection with the killing of his fiancé just months before their wedding. We are going to go step by step through this case, look at all of the information that prosecutors used to nail their suspect. There is a lot, including his own admissions. and I got to say, his incredibly suspicious actions on the night of the murder. So the case dates back to May of 2021. And professional MMA fighter Philip Keller and his fiance, popular body piercing

specialist at Da Vinci Tattoo and Piercing, Alicia Kempatelli, who friends and family called Red, were living on Merritt Island in Brevard County, Florida. And apparently, Red and Keller were having some trouble in the relationship. That's what's been reported. Now, according to Brevard deputies, Keller had relapsed into drug use on May 14th, and this apparently led to a blowout with Red. Keller tried to claim that he left the apartment after Redd had made him sleep on the couch. When he came home the next morning, and around 11 a.m., he called 911. Okay, what city is it in, sir?

Oh, my God, I'm trying not to step on anything. What? What city are you on? Are you in? Yes, it's good. Okay. Okay, and what is your name, sir? All right, and what's going on there?

It looks like she's been shot. I wouldn't get robbed. Okay, and you said it looks like somebody's been shot there? She's laying right in front of me. Okay, I have help already on the way, sir. Is she conscious? Is she breathing? No, ma'am.

Okay, she's not breathing at all? No. Okay, can you tell where on her body that she was shot? Like somewhere like in the head. Okay. All right. Is there anybody else in the house? Is there anybody else that lives there by you, sir?

Okay. How old is she? She's 35. 35. Do you know when the last time you talked to or spoke with her at all or saw her awake? Yes, it was last night. Okay. Okay, last night.

Okay, and you haven't been since then? Absolutely right. Absolutely. Hello, sir. Hello. Hello. Hello. Okay, so we got help on the way?

Yeah, we're on our way, too. Thanks. Thanks. Now, according to Brevard County law enforcement, Keller disconnected the call. But we know what happened next because that's thanks to police reports that law and crime obtained from the sheriff's office. We're going to go through everything and to talk about each step of this process. I want to bring in an expert here.

I want to bring the criminal defense attorney David Shapiro. David, thanks so much for coming on. First of all, that 911 call is chilling and it's also very telling to say the release. What did you make of it? Yeah, without question. First of all, thanks so much for having me. It's great to be back. The night one call was telling, right?

It's telling even in the way it ended in the sense when he was asked a question, when Keller was asked a question that he presumably didn't want to answer or may have realized, hey, I'm probably saying too much as is. He disconnected the call. And you could tell he's sort of fumbling over his words. He's having a hard time putting two and two together there. What he said ultimately, you know, contradicted everything law enforcement gathered in evidence in the days ahead. And this murder happened in May of 2021.

He wasn't sentenced until February 2025. Is that a normal schedule? Is that a long schedule? Yeah, certainly. A couple of things of play here, right? One is we're coming off the pandemic in 2021. So there was a backlog in courts nationwide, right? Whether you're in Florida, whether you're in San Diego, wherever you may be.

And what we also know is that, you know, whatever you have a case involving forensics, whenever you have a case involving murder, whatever you're dealing with cell phone evidence, you're dealing with license plate readers, you're dealing with a case of that magnitude where someone's charged with, and presumably there's enough evidence for them to be convicted of even a first-degree murder, it's a long process. So the fact that we're three, four years after the fact, not super concerning, not super alarming, but it is certainly a long period of time. Now, we have been all on top of this story for a while now, and the reason that we can be on top of a story like this and really break it down and bring you updates is because of the amazing support

that we get from our sponsor, Morgan and Morgan. This is America's largest injury law firm. This is a firm with over a thousand attorneys. You know why they have so many? Because they win a lot. They have recovered over $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. In the past few months, a client in Florida received $12 million after the insurance company offered just $350,000. Pennsylvania, a client was awarded $26 million. That is 40 times the insurer's $650,000 offer. Another client in Pennsylvania received $29 million after being offered only $500,000. And even if you think your case isn't worth millions of dollars,

why not just start a claim and fight for what you deserve? Morgan and Morgan makes it so simple. You can start a claim from your phone in just eight clicks. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar by clicking the link below or scanning the QR code on screen. So let's go back to May 2021. Okay, so according to the first deputies on scene, They actually had a hard time finding the crime scene because Keller had given 911 the apartment complex's address, but not the unit number.

Now, they eventually figured out where they needed to be because there was a door that was open about six inches. They go inside, and when they go inside, deputies say they found Keller standing in the living room and on the floor nearby was red, parent gunshot wound to her left eye. Now, I'm going to read you from what it says in the police report. It says, quote, While outside with Deputy O'Hara, Mr. Keller stated he last saw the decedent around midnight the night before. Mr. Keller stated during that time around midnight, they were having an argument about his drug and alcohol abuse. He spontaneously stated he sold his gun two days prior to an unknown black male in the neighborhood. Mr. Keller further stated it was his belief that he was supposed to be the intended target and that if he was home, the boys would have robbed him.

David, he spontaneously states that he sold his gun two days ago. and that he's a target of the robbery. You know, what's interesting about that is, even if he really did sell his gun recently, that's something someone should just blurt out, a little curious? No, I mean, I've got to tell you, right? Obviously, first we're dealing with the tragic loss of life. So that's the most, the biggest tragedy in all this.

But as a criminal defense attorney in a very close second, in my professional opinion, the fact that he was talking and what he said was catastrophic to his defense, right? And that's one of the worst things that any suspect in a crime, whether you're dealing with a first-degree murder or whether you're accused of a petty theft, could possibly do because you're fumbling over your words, you're volunteering information and you're arguably corroborating some theories that law enforcement may already have. Here, he's trying to divert them away with his gun and the police would have robbed me and all this other stuff. And it's just red flag after red flag after red flag after red flag. And Keller seems to be trying to, you know, direct suspicion away from someone else onto someone else. And according to deputies, he apparently admitted that he traded his handgun for drugs, for Molly, a type of MDMA ecstasy. And there are texts that show that he threatens someone

who seemed to be the dealer. Quote, Mr. Keller showed Deputy Wright text messages on his cell phone he sent on Saturday, May 15th, 2021 in approximately 937 hours to his, quote, drug dealer. The first text message stated, I want my gun back, bro. I traded it to you and gave you cash and you ripped me off. You're lucky right now. Time to catch a shit whooping from me. We can do MMA rules one-on-one, bro. You tell me where.

A second text message sent in approximately 940 hours to the same number stated. I forgot I even traded that to you. I was bleeped up. Now you know where I live. Stay the bleep away from my house, bro. Okay, David, those texts are interesting. What do they tell you? Well, the timing of the text is interesting, right?

Because the timing I had a text was that Saturday morning when presumably she'd already been murdered, right? So it looks like he's scrambling. It looks like he's in some sort of an altered mental state because of the drugs, because of his addiction. And he's trying to cover his tracks. He's trying to lend some credence by way of these text messages to someone that he's saying was his dealer that, you know, hey, his focus that morning was getting the gun back and having this one-on-one beef with the drug dealer, not necessarily covering his tracks for the murder of his girlfriend, which ultimately was proven to be the real situation. During this investigation, there's a neighbor who told police they heard three gunshots

at around 1 a.m. Okay, that timing very interesting when you think about when the phone call was made, right? At around 1 a.m. from the direction of Red and Keller's apartment. And when deputies spoke with Red's twin, by the way, she revealed she had gotten a message from Keller in the morning just hours after Red was killed. Quote, during an interview with the deceased, seat and sister, Mrs. Alana Marshall, Mrs. Marshall showed your affiant a text message sent to her by Mr. Keller on May 15, 2021 at approximately 739 hours. The text message stated, hello, Alicia told me to tell you that she dropped and broke her phone. It's not working at all. She's getting a new one today. Now, deputies reports indicate that a broken cell phone was found on the floor

near Red's body, but David, that really why that message was sent? It's a prime example of panic. It's a prime example of trying to fabricate evidence. It's a prime example of a cover-up. And quite frankly, it failed miserably for a number of reasons. You know, you have this now in conjunction with the texting the purported drug dealer with this beef to get back his phone. This is all going on six, seven, eight, nine hours after the gunshots were heard by the neighbor. Right.

So it's just complete panic mode. It may very well be substance abused or alcohol abused. It may very well be a substance-induced or alcohol-induced panic or could very well be the fact that this guy just realized that for whatever reason he took the life of his long-term girlfriend and his fiancee. Through interviews, surveillance footage, banking records, deputies were able to put together a timeline of what happened here. And I'm going to take you through it right now. So according to Keller, he had wrecked his car. So he drove red to work on Friday, May 14th. He told deputies he relapsed that day, and Red's co-worker confirmed she drove Redd home that evening and around 715.

Keller said that Red was only inside for a few minutes when an argument broke out between them over his drug use. Red had apparently left, went to the gym, returned some time between 8.30 and 9.30 that night. When she got home, the argument continued. Quote, sometime around midnight, the decedent told Mr. Keller to sleep on the couch. Instead of sleeping on the couch, Mr. Keller left the residence with the decedent's dog in the decedent's vehicle. and drove to Coco to purchase more drugs. Mr. Keller claimed he did not return home until just a few minutes prior to finding the decedent deceased.

Mr. Keller reported the decedent deceased at 1113 hours on May 15th. Now, David, the way that Keller tells it, he left it around midnight to buy drugs and then come back for, what, 11 hours? That's a big gap, right? And by the way, turns out we knew what he was doing during that time, visiting multiple ATMs with Reds bank cards. I'll get into that. But that timeline doesn't make sense.

The eye in the sky does not lie, right? Surveillance, bank receipts, cell phone data, license plate readers, anything and everything. And what probably happened based on this timeline is she was shot before he ultimately is leaving the apartment complex with the dog. And what we have is we have surveillance from this apartment complex, who's coming, who's going in the parking lot, what car. It sounds like it wasn't the greatest. quality of surveillance because they're just giving descriptions of what someone's wearing,

not necessarily who exactly it is. But the problem is that just doesn't make sense. And then you're using your girlfriend who you just killed hours ago. You're using her ATM card all over that area in Florida, presumably to take out cash to buy drugs, whether that's the sort of help you get through this tragedy that it just happened, whether it's a numb the pain, whatever the case may be. It is a paper trail that no matter how hard he tried and certainly failed doing so, he wasn't able to cover up or correct because there are just some things that you can't avoid when it comes to surveillance, when it comes to technology, especially in a case of this magnitude, law enforcement is going to be all over it. So according to deputies, okay, Keller made at least seven withdrawals.

He was seen on surveillance at a Circle K, getting money from an ATM inside the store just before 2 a.m. According to Red's bank records, he withdrew $303.50. later in the morning at around 650 a.m., he was seen on video at an ATM at a racetrack gas station. So first he does a balance inquiry, then he does three withdrawals, $403, $303, $203, so a total of $909. Minutes later, he was spotted at Wells Fargo ATM withdrawing $103 in separate transactions. And more than three hours later, he was back at that same racetrack, this time taking out $63. In total, Keller stole almost $1,500 from Reds account. And these are very random amounts, very strange.

Do you know why those specific amounts? Any idea about why those specific amounts? So it wouldn't trigger something maybe? I don't know. It's weird. Yeah, I think certain ATMs have limits. There are some you can only take out $200 or some you might only be able to take out $100. He might have done it just in increments as to get him through the next hour or two,

whether, you know, whatever he needed to buy as far as drugs go. So first of $3, that's likely a surcharge at some point. So if I go to an ATM at a gas station instead of going to my preferred bank, you know, I want to take out $300. It's going to show as a 303 transaction because the ATM machine itself is going to keep a couple of dollars. But it's a very erratic. It's very inconsistent.

It's very unplanned. It's very, you know, sloppy. Not to mention that not only is he doing this in general, but he's doing this with his girlfriend's ATM card, who by this time, we know that he's. he had already murdered. Now, if that wasn't shocking enough, guess what Keller did when he said he came home to find his fiancee dead in a pool of blood in the living room. He stepped over her to go change his clothes.

Yeah, according to the police reports, he checked her for a pulse on her neck, did not feel one. Mr. Keller then stepped over the decedent and walked to the southeast bedroom. Mr. Keller then redacted and changed his clothes. When asked why he changed his clothes, Mr. Keller stated, because his clothes were sweaty, and he'd been in them since the day prior. Yeah, that makes sense, right, David? Yeah, he was sweaty.

That's what it was. Another, another, another, another example of sort of falling over your own words when talking to law enforcement. Whether you did that or not, there's no place to say that. It just makes you look heartless. It makes you look cold. It makes you look someone capable of shooting your girlfriend in the head, presumably for no real good reason, not that there really is a good reason to begin with.

And it also makes you look like you had something. to hide. Not that you were sweaty, they were looking to get out of the clothes that you presumably wore hours earlier when you shot her repeatedly in the head. Maybe not surprisingly they ended up pleading guilty. We'll get to that in a second. So five days after the murder on May 20th, Sheriff Wayne Ivy updated the public when Keller was taken into custody and explained how he basically ratted himself out. Earlier tonight, Keller provided specific information relating to the crime to a citizen who then contacted homicide agents. Deputies located Keller at a local establishment on Merritt Island, who, upon seeing their arrival,

jumped into Sykes Creek in an effort to avoid law enforcement. Keller was detained shortly after entering the water and transported to criminal investigative services where he was interviewed by agents. As a result of the investigation, an arrest warrant was signed earlier tonight by a judge, charging Keller with first-degree premeditated murder. That's right. Keller likely riddled with guilt confessed to a friend who immediately did the right thing and took it straight to law enforcement. The deputies then set up this controlled calls between the friend and Keller and got Keller on tape, essentially spilling his guts.

The basic transcript of the expletive, laden confession was in the report, quote, I killed her, bro. I killed her high as bleep. I did it. I don't know how I did it, but I can't live with myself knowing that. I'm a piece of bleep. I was super high on Molly. Mr. Keller stated that if he didn't have that drug in his body, he would not have grabbed the bleep and gun. I shot her the first time and missed through a towel, and she ducked her head.

and I shot her twice in the back of the head in a cold blood. I did it. I'm so bleeping sorry, ma'am. In fact, let's talk about that when investigators searched the apartment. They found the towel. It had been dropped on top of blood spatter on the floor. And when the towel was folded up, five bullet holes lined up perfectly. Gunshot residue was found on them.

And Keller went on to explain what he did after the murder. He left in Red's car, hit up the ATMs, bought more drugs, came home, saw the bag that the gun had been on the floor. So he gathered everything up, drove it to a nearby store, where he threw everything away near a dumpster. And he said he threw the gun into a canal. And a little interesting note here. Keller said that he tried to locate all three shell casings to throw them out. Only ended up finding two. You know who found the other one?

Crime scene investigators. They found it in a shoe that was in the living room. So the then 39-year-old was arrested. He was taken to the Brevard County Jail Complex was likely very wet because, remember, he jumped into a creek to try to get away from deputies. and he was charged with first-degree murder and denied bail. Took nearly four years, but Keller's attorneys eventually reached a plea deal with prosecutors downgrading the charge to second-degree murder. And in February 2025, Judge Kurt Jacobus sentenced Keller to 50 years in prison.

Now, according to the deal, he won't be eligible for parole until at least 25 years from now. And during the sentencing hearing, Keller didn't speak. He was seen wiping his eyes at the defense table. according to reporting from Florida today. David, that's an interesting conclusion. Why do you think a deal was offered here? And do you think it's a right deal? Yeah, a couple of things at play is,

one from a factual perspective, right? They, you know, anyone with a pulse and a bar card would have been able to convict him on these facts. So it wasn't necessarily a matter of, was he going to be convicted at trial. It was going to be how long it was going to take. And sometimes people may look at it and say, well, why did they cut him a deal?

Why do he plead to second degree? Why didn't the prosecutor require that he plead guilty to first degree murder what he was initially charged with. And there's many reasons why, right? There could have been a whole string of mitigation evidence that would have been presented to the district attorney about his substance abuse, about his otherwise overall character when he was not using and some of the struggles or demons he may have been dealing with. It also could have been, you know, they usually weigh in as they should. The prosecutors they are weighing in with the victim's family, right? Do you want to put yourself and your loved ones through

this trial and have to hear this evidence over and over again, the publicity that goes with it. And in this situation, yeah, it's a second-degree sentence, but he still has to serve 25 years until he's even eligible for parole. And this is a guy who's now in his mid-40s, right? So he's going to be into his 60s by the time in all likelihood he'll be able to even be eligible for parole, not necessarily to say that he would ever be paroled to begin with. Well, Red's mother, Deborah Moore, gave a victim impact statement, saying in part our hearts are so broken every day. We still hear her laugh at our family gatherings. It was not just the end of life. It was the end of our family's life. David Shapiro, thank you so much for taking

the time. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me. And that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.