I don't know if I understand your question exactly, so forgive me if this is not what you're looking for.
This
website offers a cool little interactive flash program which allows you to click through the various stages of a capital trial (and shows you what happens during each stage/offers a brief description.)
As far as the Guilt Phase-- that's the part we popularly recognize as the criminal trial-- the opening/closing arguments, testimony, jury instructions/deliberations, etc. So things you're reading about a non-death penalty criminal case and criminal cases in general will likely apply-- the only difference I can think of offhand is that in voir dire (part of guilt phase) the jury selected has to be death-eligible.
Guilt Phase is just the "did you do it?"-part and Penalty phase is "ok, we know you did it, now what are we going to do to you?"-part.
You probably keep running into info about the Penalty Phase because that's where capital cases depart from the general sentencing process-- penalty phase has its own unique set of issues and procedure, etc. (the issues and procedure involved in capital sentencing (penalty phase) are more complex because "death is different" -- something you likely heard Andrea Lyon say a lot in the last hearing).
Does that make sense or get close to what you were asking?