Miami County prosecutors will retry Frank Bowen, 25, in the October 2014 homicide of Joseph Graley III, 31, of Bethel Twp., beginning Nov. 16.
KEY POINTS
- Frank Bowen, 25, accused of murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering and safe-cracking
- Jury convicts him of safe-cracking Aug. 4; judge declares mistrial on other charges
UPDATE @ 4:40 p.m. (Aug. 28):
The date for a five-day jury trial was set today in Miami County Common Pleas Court by Judge Christopher Gee.
A jury Aug. 4 found Frank Bowen guilty of felony safe-cracking, but told the judge it would be unable to agree on verdicts on charges of murder, gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Gee declared a mistrial on those charges.
A former Tipp City area resident, Bowen was staying with his friend Graley when Graley disappeared in early October. He was reported missing by friends and family a couple of weeks later and his body was found the following day covered with brush in the backyard of his Scarff Road residence. County Coroner Dr. Steve Huffman said Graley suffered blunt force trauma. Janna Parker, assistant prosecuting attorney, said Graley died when he was struck in the head with a sledge hammer.
Witnesses testified at the first trial that Bowen gave differing accounts of where Graley went and said Graley left him in charge of his drug business. The safe-cracking charge involved a safe in Graley’s bedroom where witnesses said he kept marijuana, guns and other property.
Bowen remains in the county jail on the safe-cracking charge. NANCY BOWMAN, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
UPDATE @ 4:37 p.m.: (Aug. 4) Frank Bowen will be retried on charges of murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in the death of Joseph Graley III, Miami County Prosecutor Tony Kendell said. The new trial date still has to be scheduled.
Bowen could be sentenced to as many as 18 months in prison on safe-cracking, the charge on which the jury convicted him earlier in the day.
Judge Chris Gee has declared a mistrial after jurors, who found Bowen guilty of safe-cracking, were at an impasse on the murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering evidence charges.
UPDATE @ 11:25 p.m. (July 28):
A Bethel Twp. man known for being a good friend ended up dead because of his kindness, Miami County prosecutors said in their opening statements.
Frank Bowen, 25, of Tipp City, went on trial in Miami County Common Pleas Court on four felony charges including murder in the death of Joseph Graley III, 31. Graley’s remains were found Oct. 23 under a pile of boards and debris in the backyard of his home on Scarff Road in southeast Miami County.
The trial is expected to last three to four days.
Janna Parker, assistant prosecuting attorney, said Graley died when he was struck in the head with a sledge hammer, causing fatal blunt force trauma to the head and neck.
Bowen, a friend who had returned to the county from South Carolina in the weeks before Graley’s death, was living with Graley because Bowen was broke, unemployed, homeless and had a young child to support, Parker said in opening statements Tuesday afternoon.
Most of the day was spent seating a jury and two alternate jurors.
“Joe opened up his home to him. Just a few days later, Joe was dead,” Parker told the jury in her summary of what she said the evidence would reveal.
Parker said Graley was “the type of guy who’d give you the shirt off his back.” That kindness, she said, “is what ended up killing him.”
Among the evidence is DNA from Graley and Bowen on a sledge hammer found in a wooded area near the home, she said
Bowen is charged also with gross abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and safe-cracking. The safe-cracking charge accuses Bowen of breaking into a safe in Graley’s bedroom and stealing drugs and other property inside.
Parker said that while others were looking for Graley for days, Bowen continued to stay in the house, telling various stories to various people and selling Graley’s drugs.
Defense lawyer Steve Layman, a county public defender, said prosecutors are trying to build a case based on pieces of evidence.
“Yes, they have evidence potentially linking him,” Layman said of Bowen. “The facts don’t add up.”
Bowen’s DNA was found on the sledge hammer handle. “Frank lived there and his DNA was on other items,” Layman said. He said that with the exception of the sledge hammer, the two men’s DNA was not shared on any other items prosecutors said were linked to the death including a pillow and bloody towel.
Layman described Graley as depressed and “a drug dealer with all the danger of that.”
Although Graley was missing for a couple of weeks before friends contacted police, Layman said Bowen told investigators that his understanding was Graley was going to a funeral with his mother. Various people were at the home between the time Graley was last seen and the body found.
Layman said Bowen continued to stay at the house, never trying to run even when he knew law enforcement would be coming to the house to talk about Graley’s disappearance.
