newsroom

Lost wallet helps police locate suspected burglar

News-Democrat

Note to would-be criminals: If you're going to rob a home, remember not to leave your wallet behind.

Joshua Winters, 19, of 2917 Apt. 7 West Boulevard in unincorporated Belleville, was arrested and charged in connection with the robbery of a home in the 1800 block of Spruce Hill Drive in unincorporated Belleville on Monday.

According to the police report, the resident of the Spruce Hill Drive home pulled into the garage at his home about 8:45 p.m. Monday and he heard voices inside. He noticed a door slightly open and knew no one should have been home at the time, according to Capt. Steve Johnson, chief investigator for the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department.

Joshua Winters, 19, of 2917 West Blvd., Apt. 7 near Belleville, was charged with burglary. - Provided/BND

Belleville sex offender found, arrested in Tennessee

News-Democrat

A convicted child sex offender who moved and failed to inform the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department of his new location has been found and arrested in Tennessee.

Christopher T. Bradley, 22, was arrested Saturday in Weakley County, Tenn., by the Weakley County Sheriff's Department. An anonymous caller contacted the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department to inform them about Bradley's possible location in Tennessee, according to Capt. Steve Johnson. Deputies in Weakley County checked the address provided by the anonymous caller and found Bradley at the address.

Bradley was arrested and has been charged in Tennessee with failing to register as a sex offender and evading arrest. He will face charges in Tennessee before he is transferred back to Illinois.

He is also charged in St. Clair County with failing to notify of a new address as a sex offender and failing to renew his address as a sex offender.

Investigators in St. Clair County had been searching for Bradley since the beginning of June after he was told by police to move from the MidAmerican Inn at 1651 Old State Route 158 near Belleville because the location was less than 500 feet from a playground.

Convicted child sex offenders are prohibited from living closer than 500 feet to any school, playground or daycare center.

According to court documents, Bradley was convicted in 2008 of failing to register as a sex offender. He was convicted in 2007 of a sex offense involving a child.

Bowman's violent past is revealed in penalty phase

 

October 22, 2009 - Dewey Rumfelt, left, addresses the media inside the court house in Clayton after a jury decleared Gregory Bowman guilt in a 1977 murder of Rumfelt's sister Velda Joy Rumfelt. Pictured with Rumfelt is his wife Teresa, right. (David Carson/P-D)

By Heather Ratcliffe

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

10/23/2009

UPDATE, 7 P.M. FRIDAY: A jury recommended this evening that Gregory Bowman be put to death for the 1977 murder of Velda Jo Rumfelt in St. Louis County.

CLAYTON — Jurors gasped and dropped their heads as they learned that the man they convicted hours earlier of strangling a 16-year-old girl was also accused of abducting at knifepoint at least five other women, two of whom were murdered.

Three of the victims tearfully told the jury how Gregory Bowman grabbed them from behind and put a knife to their necks in the 1970s. Two said he began to sexually assault them before they persuaded him to stop. The third was able to flee.
A retired police chief described the two victims who were found dead.

Their stories came in the penalty phase of the trial against Bowman, who was convicted of capital murder Thursday in the death of Velda Joy Rumfelt in St. Louis County in June 1977.
Prosecutor Joe Dueker choked up as he told the jury about the five women, and Bowman's defense attorney acknowledged the evidence wouldn't be easy to hear.

Sheriff's deputies looking for sex offender who failed to notify county of his move

News-Democrat

Investigators at the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department are hoping someone has seen a convicted sex offender who failed to register his new residence with police.

Christopher T. Bradley, 22, a convicted child sex offender, has been charged by the St. Clair County State's Attorney with failing to notify of a new address and failing to renew his address.

Investigators have been looking for Bradley since the beginning of June, after he was told by police to move from the MidAmerica Inn at 1651 Old State Route 158 in unincorporated Belleville.

Christopher T. Bradley. - Provided/BND

Death for Bowman? Jurors hear mother of Belleville victim: 'We've missed her all this time'

BY BETH HUNDSDORFER - News-Democrat

CLAYTON, Mo. -- Gregory Bowman was convicted Thursday of murdering a 16-year-old Missouri teenager.

Now Missouri prosecutors may get what Belleville prosecutors likely cannot -- lethal injection for Bowman.

For more than two hours Thursday night, St. Louis County prosecutors were presenting evidence to convince jurors that Bowman is eligible for the death penalty for abducting, raping and murdering 16-year-old Velda Joy Rumfelt in 1977. Much of that evidence centered on his abductions, rapes and murders of other women in Belleville and elsewhere in Illinois -- crimes that were kept from jurors during the trial.

Dewey Rumfelt and Teresa Rumfelt discuss the guilty verdict. - Derik Holtmann/BND

CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

• STORY:Bowman on trial: Suspect in Mo. murder case accused in 2 Belleville killings
• STORY:Prosecution rests in Bowman murder trial; DNA called 'one-in-trillions' match
• STORY:Jury's out: Teen murder victim's panties key to convicting or clearing Bowman
• LINK:VIDEO of victim's brother

Bowman on trial: Suspect in Mo. murder case accused in 2 Belleville killings

From staff and wire reports

CLAYTON, Mo. -- A trial for a 1977 St. Louis County murder case continues today for Gregory Bowman, who also is accused of the killings of two Belleville females.

Prosecutors said DNA evidence will play a crucial role in the trial, which began Monday.

St. Louis County prosecutor Joe Dueker said during opening statements that physical evidence in the death of 16-year-old Velda Rumfelt clearly points to Bowman. "The defendant will finally have to pay for what he did to Velda Rumfelt 32 years ago," he told a jury in St. Louis County Circuit Court.

Gregory Bowman in one of his court appearances at the St. Clair County Building. - Zia Nizami/BND

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Bowman's defense attorney, Stephan Evans, called the case unusual "from the standpoint that not much is in dispute."

Bowman, 58, of Bellmont, Ill., previously admitted to two separate killings, but those convictions were overturned. In 1978, Elizabeth West, 14, and Ruth Ann Jany, 21, disappeared separately in Belleville and were later found slain in remote areas. Bowman became a suspect when he was arrested after trying to kidnap a woman.