KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Kansas City woman who rejected a plea deal that would have freed her if she admitted that she killed her husband in 2012 has been sentenced to life in prison.
Clay County Judge Shane Alexander sentenced Viola Bowman on Wednesday for first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the fatal shooting of 53-year-old Albert “Rusty” Bowman, saying that the court is convinced of her guilt. She was convicted by a jury in September.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Robert Lee Sanders accused her of being a “cold, calculating manipulator.” She was accused of shooting her husband in the couple's home in November 2012 to collect a life insurance policy and then staging the scene to make it look like there had been a break-in.
But Viola Bowman has steadfastly maintained her innocence. Last year, she rejected a plea deal that would have given her credit for time served and allowed her to go free, but would have required her to admit guilt. She told a judge, ”I did not do this.”
In court Wednesday, she told the judge: “I did not murder my husband.” She then turned and addressed two of her daughters present in courtroom: “I’m sorry you lost your father. … I suffer every day without your father here.”
She said she found her husband shot when she returned from the store. But prosecutors noted that items like a laptop, car keys and a wallet were not stolen from the home. Officials also labeled her reaction to her husband’s death with first responders as “odd.”
She was not arrested for the killing until 2015, but has remained in jail since then while her case was delayed dozens of times.
Horton Lance, Bowman’s defense attorney, sought for the judge to order a new trial, saying the jury made “a tragic mistake” by convicting Bowman. That motion was rejected Wednesday.
Lance told The Star after court that he would be filing an appeal on Bowman’s behalf, saying “we hope to prove in the end that she truly is innocent.”