 |
| ||||||
Text Size 
• Email • Printer Friendly
|
Friday, September 26, 2008 10:40 AM Neighbor recalls finding Bowling's body By Antonio Velarde | Times Staff Writer GREENVILLE -- Continuing the parade of witnesses in what will likely be a lengthy and dramatic murder trial, prosecutors Thursday further developed their case against Mark Bowling. Jurors heard testimony from forensic and law enforcement officials, a co-worker of his wife and a neighbor who called the victim "a very caring and wonderful person" and expressed guilt for not having heard gunshots ring out the morning Julie Bowling was killed. Mark Bowling, 37, is accused of plotting to kill his wife, and is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree-murder. He faces life in prison if he is convicted. During Thursday's testimony, the Bowlings' neighbor, Sandy Godwin, described in detail the morning of Dec. 8, 2006, when 45-year-old Julie Bowling was found shot to death in the garage of the Bowling's River Glenn home in Rocky Mount. Godwin said she had just dropped off one of her kids for school after 7 a.m. that morning and, on her way back home, noticed the Bowlings' garage door was open and that a vehicle was still inside. Godwin told jurors that Julie Bowling should have left for work by then, but said she thought nothing unusual of it until several minutes later, when she heard Julie Bowling's co-worker, Linda Gardner, banging on the door. "She was screaming, 'Julie's dead. Oh my God, Julie's dead,'" Godwin told jurors. Bowling, the former owner of Bowling Funerals and Cremations in Rocky Mount, is accused of plotting the shooting with his alleged mistress, Rose Deloris Parker Vincent, 28, of Middlesex, who was spared the death penalty after confessing in August to shooting Julie Bowling. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and she is expected to testify against Bowling. Godwin told jurors Thursday how she and Gardner spoke to emergency responders after Gardner found Julie Bowling's body in her garage, dressed for work, lying next to a vehicle. After checking Julie Bowling's vital signs and speaking to emergency responders, Godwin said, she went back over to Julie Bowling's garage and tried to use Bowling's cell phone to contact her relatives. Godwin choked back tears as she described how, afterward, "I grabbed Julie's hand, and I rubbed her face, and I just talked to her. "I think it was more to soothe myself," Godwin said. She said she was later able to briefly leave a message for someone on the diving trip Mark Bowling had taken with friends to Florida. Godwin, who visited the Bowlings' home often and was friendly with them, said her husband had planned on attending the Florida driving trip Bowling was on, but he decided not to go. Under cross-examination by defense attorney Tommy Moore, one of two attorneys representing Bowling, Godwin said she did not hear the gunshots that morning. "I have a lot of guilt with that," she said. Defense attorneys also had a chance Thursday to cross-examine Gardner, who had testified before Godwin. Gardner, who worked with Julie Bowling for more than 20 years at Nash Day Hospital, said Julie Bowling told her and co-workers that if anything ever happened to her, they should look to Bowling. Defense attorneys Thursday questioned a comment Gardner made during testimony Wednesday where she said Julie Bowling had told her and co-workers that if Bowling ever put her in a crematory oven at the funeral home, no one would find her. Defense attorney Tom Sallenger asked Gardner if she responded to the statement. "When people say things like that, you don't know what to think," Gardner said. "What do you say?" Gardner also testified that, before she was murdered, Julie Bowling had told her she believed Bowling was having her followed. "I said (to Julie Bowling) 'If anything, you should have him followed'," she said Sallenger also asked Gardner about flowers that Bowling sent his wife at her job, and about jewelry he had given her as gifts. He asked her if she wore them with pride. "She never said that, but she wore them," Gardner said. She said Julie Bowling told her the flowers, especially, were unusually excessive. Gardner also spoke about phone calls she received from Mark Bowling the morning of Julie Bowling's death, asking about Julie's whereabouts. Also during testimony Thursday, M.G. F. Gilliland, a forensic pathologist and professor at East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine, told jurors that Julie Bowling died after losing more than three pints of blood after she was shot three times in the chest and once in the abdomen. "Julie Bowling died a as a result of gunshot wounds to the torso," Gilliland said. Gilliland, who was familiar with the autopsy and medical examiner reports filed after Julie Bowling's death, said two of the wounds Julie Bowling received were relatively "superficial," but that two additional gunshot wounds caused severe blood loss. In terms of blood loss from the wounds, she said, "that's so much blood that is lost that circulation to the brain is lost and the person loses consciousness." She said little blood was seen by medical examiners at the scene of the crime because most of the blood loss was internal. Jurors also heard testimony from members of the Nash County Sheriff's Office, which responded to the Bowling home the morning of the murder. Lt. Pat Joyner, with the Nash County Sheriff's Office, told jurors he was the person who contacted Mark Bowling after Julie Bowling was found shot. He said he had no knowledge of Bowling trying to reach the sheriff's office again later that day. A 911 recording of Joyner's call to Bowling was played during the trial, with Bowling sounding distraught as Joyner told him his wife was deceased. Adam Gelo, an investigator for the sheriff's office, described to jurors how he went with Vincent and investigators to a cemetery the day after the crime occurred, digging from a shallow hole a Depression-era 32-caliber Harrington & Richardson revolver Vincent said she used to kill Julie Bowling. "It's a very old weapon," said Gelo, estimating it was likely made in the 1920s or 1930s. Gelo, who said Vincent showed investigators where the weapon was buried, told jurors Vincent stood silently nearby as he dug up the weapon. The firing pin inside the revolver had struck five rounds, and there was still an unfired round inside, he said. The gun was partially wrapped in white medical tape, around the handle, trigger guard and trigger. The trial is being held in Greenville due to concerns by defense attorneys that a fair trial in Nash County would have been impossible due to excessive media coverage of the case. A gag order is also in place, baring court officials and anyone directly involved in the case from speaking publicly about it. The trial resumed at 9:30 a.m. this morning. avelarde@wilsontimes.com | 265-7868 |
| Add Comment: | |  | | (All comments must be approved) |
| View Comments: | | | | (0 comments) |
Most Popular
 |
 |
 |
