Bowen receives life sentence for assault

FrederickGayBowen

FrederickGayBowen A Peabody man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in the sexual assault of a 14-year-old Peabody girl, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced Wednesday.

Terry Bowen, 64, was found guilty June 30 of two counts of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated kidnapping in Marion County District Court.

District Judge Michael Powers sentenced Bowen to life without parole under the state?s aggravated habitual sex offender statute.

According to Marion County Attorney Susan Robson, Bowen received the life sentence based on his criminal history as a sexual violent predator and other crimes, including burglary.

As a special finding, the court also determined Bowen to be an aggravated habitual sexual offender, she said.

In addition to Bowen?s sentence, two other people were convicted in connection with the crime.

  Lora Gay, 38, was sentenced to more than 25 years in prison and Kenneth Frederick, 22, both of Peabody, was sentenced to more than 20 years.

Both Gay and Frederick received lesser sentences because they did not have past criminal records.

Each received consecutive sentences for the first two counts of rape and aggravated criminal sodomy.

For Gay that translated to 155 months each, but Robson said that with 15 percent of ?good time? at the county jail, about three years will already be time served.

For Frederick, the sentence was 147 months for each of the top two counts to run consecutive, but he too will have just over three years of time served.

Gay and Frederick were both also found guilty of criminal threat. The three defendants were found not guilty of a battery charge.

All three remain at the Marion County Jail until paperwork has been signed and forwarded to the Department of Corrections.

Once the DOC receives the paperwork, all three will be moved to a prison facility.

Deliberation

It took the Marion County jury of eight men and four women 17 hours to reach a verdict of guilty on two counts of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated kidnapping involving a 14-year-old girl.

In reaching a guilty verdict, the foreperson said the jury relied on several elements of the case, including the Kansas Bureau of Investigation?s interview with Frederick and the inconsistencies in his story about how much time he spent with the victim.

A lot of credibility was given to the victim based on her video-taped interview with Wilma Mueller, a social worker at the Child Advocacy Center in Newton.

Another piece of evidence that played a major role in convicting the three had to do with a telephone call made by Fred?erick to an unidentified person.

The initial sentencing hearing was scheduled for Aug. 9 at the district court in Marion. However, the hearing was continued several times before finally being heard Dec. 7.

Robson said she appreciated Assistant Attorneys General C.W. Klebe and Christine Ladner for their help in prosecuting the case.

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