Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 8, 1995 TAG: 9511080080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
The delays came to an abrupt halt last week with conclusions of an examination conducted by an independent doctor.
"This patient is a malingerer and a liar," wrote Dr. Douglas L. Damron of Martinsville in a report to Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood.
Bowman, 63, and several of his family members had claimed for months that he suffered a stroke in February and has so many other serious medical conditions that he was unfit to appear in court, much less go to prison.
Bowman was convicted in January of grand larceny and breaking and entering with a gun. The jury recommended that he be sentenced to 40 years in prison - one of the stiffest sentences for such charges in the recent past, Hapgood said.
Bowman also is one of the oldest people to be found guilty of the charges in the county's history.
He was scheduled to be sentenced early this spring, but he didn't show for the hearing.
As time passed, prosecutors began to suspect that Bowman was faking it.
So when he showed up on a hospital bed for another sentencing date last month, Circuit Court Judge B.A. Davis III asked that an independent physician perform a thorough examination.
Hapgood found a couple of doctors who agreed to do the exam, and Bowman's attorney, Mary Harkins, was asked to pick the specific physician and to submit a list of questions for the doctor to answer.
Harkins, recently appointed Bowman's lawyer after another asked to be released as his counsel, said Damron's report spoke for itself. She said she didn't know if she would appeal.
In October 1994, Franklin County sheriff's investigators testified that they caught Bowman, who lives in Henry County, and several other men red-handed as they were trying to steal items from a home in Endicott.
Wearing tennis shoes, Bowman scurried through the house with a gun trying to escape capture, investigators said.
He showed up for his initial court appearance using a walker.
In his report, Damron said Bowman does suffer significant medical conditions - including coronary artery disease, hypertension and gout - but said the 63-year-old "will be able to be sentenced into the state penitentiary."
Wrote Damron: "The patient's lack of cooperation in the examination and his frank lying to me about his pre-stroke physical condition show to me that he is interested in not going to the state penitentiary by attempting to fake his way through a physical.''
by CNB