FRIDAY DEC 11 2009 -- Convicted killer Gregory Bowman is escorted into a St. Louis County courtroom to await his formal sentencing for the 1977 murder of Velda Joy Rumfelt. (David Carson/P-D)
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
12/11/2009
UPDATED, 1:10 p.m. with correction.
CLAYTON -- A judge today went with the jury's recommendation and sentenced Gregory Bowman to death for the 1977 murder of Velda Joy Rumfelt in St. Louis County.
The only alternative for Circuit Judge David Lee Vincent III would have been to impose a sentence of life without parole. Judges generally follow the jury’s wishes.
Bowman declined comment before the judge read his sentence, but later objected when Vincent called the defendant “cowardly.”
“I never,” Bowman said softly interrupting the judge. “I never. I am not guilty of this.”
Vincent suggested Bowman had an opportunity but never explained during the penalty phase of the trial how his DNA found its way onto the victim.
“Obviously the evidence shows that you preyed on young females for whatever reason,” Vincent said. “It was a cowardly act ... You can think about that for the rest of your life until you are executed.”
Bowman, 58, previously served about two decades in prison for separate murders in Belleville in 1978 but won retrials, which are pending.
It was after he was released on bond in 2007 in those cases that authorities matched his DNA with semen from the clothing of Rumfelt, 16, of Kansas City. She disappeared from the Brentwood area during a visit to family on June 5, 1977, and was found strangled, with her throat cut, in a remote unincorporated area.
Ten of the jurors who recommended death for Bowman returned Friday to see the judge deliver the sentence.
The jurors, who have kept in touch since they were sequestered one week in October, said they attended the hearing seeking closure after an emotional experience.
“We have all stayed connected and became friends,” said Dawn, who along with other jurors only revealed her first name. “We're here to support each other in our decision and see it through to the end.”
The jurors described to reporters the 14 hours when they deliberated about Bowman's guilt. Inside the jury room, the panel reenacted portions of the crime, drafted a time line of events and sifted through every piece of evidence including the victim's clothes.
“You can't hold a piece of her and not be changed by that,” said Dawn. “We gave her a voice.”
The jurors said they were shocked, but also relieved, when they learned during the penalty phase that Bowman had attacked other women. Most the jurors cried as prosecutors called three women to testify about the day Bowman grabbed them at knifepoint.
“Thank God we didn't hang the jury because we talked about it,” Dawn said. “We had no clue.”
Casey Rumfelt, 27, the victim's nephew, delivered a statement from the family to a packed courtroom during the hearing. Although he never met Velda, his parents who loved her dearly always talked about her, he said.
“Greg Bowman didn't just take a little girl off the street,” Casey Rumfelt said. “He took my dad's best friend and the only person he had.”
Casey Rumfelt offered thanks to the police, prosecutor and DNA experts for building the case against Bowman. He also thanked the jurors for having courage to convict him.
Casey Rumfelt also offered condolences to Bowman's family, with whom they had become friendly during the week-long trial.
“No family deserves to go through something like this,” Casey Rumfelt said.
Rumfelt's murder was similar to the separate slayings in 1978 of Elizabeth West, 14, and Ruth Ann Jany, 21, who both disappeared in Belleville.
Bowman was in the St. Clair County Jail, awaiting trial in the kidnapping of a woman who escaped, when he confessed the West-Jany killings to a fellow inmate. Years later, a Post-Dispatch examination of the circumstances led to an appellate court finding that the defense should have been told that an investigator had worked with the jail mate to elicit the admissions.
Bowman, who had no known connection to Rumfelt, was convicted of first-degree murder Oct. 22 by the jury that recommended a death sentence in a hearing the following day.
Before announcing the sentence, Vincent denied a motion for a new trial from defense attorney Steve Evans.
Evans argued that the DNA used to convict Bowman in Rumfelt's murder was illegally brought to Missouri after he agreed to give a sample for the Illinois cases.
The issue will likely be highlighted in Bowman's appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court, Evans said.
Huy Mach of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed to this report.
