BUFFALO -- Several people shared $100,000 in reward money offered by the New York state troopers' union during the 2006 search for fugitive Ralph "Bucky" Phillips.

A lawyer for the Police Benevolent Association said Wednesday that the money was quietly paid out earlier this year with an agreement that the recipients' identities would be kept private. Attorney Thomas Burton said some of those who helped authorities catch Phillips are afraid of retribution from his acquaintances.

Phillips is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for shooting three state troopers, one of them fatally, after escaping from a jail near Buffalo in April 2006.

He was captured in September of that year after police, tipped by residents' phone calls, zeroed in on him just across the state line in Pennsylvania.

During what grew into one of the largest manhunts in state history, the PBA offered a reward of more than $300,000 for Phillips' capture. Burton and the recipients of the money, a couple and three individuals who all live in Pennsylvania, negotiated the amount that was paid out.

Attorney Elliot Segel of Erie, Pa., who in late 2006 sued on behalf of a couple who reported a Phillips sighting, has since withdrawn the lawsuit.

Jack and Gloria Young of Warren, Pa., claimed the events leading to Phillips' capture began with their phone call to police after Jack Young saw a man believed to be Phillips on their front porch.