Bowman v. Commonwealth
| Docket Number | 2023-SC-0073-MR |
| Decision Date | 14 March 2024 |
| Citation | 686 S.W.3d 230 |
| Parties | Lance BOWMAN, Appellant v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee |
| Court | Supreme Court of Kentucky |
ON APPEAL FROM JEFFERSON CIRCUIT COURT, HONORABLE ERIC J. HANER, JUDGE, NOS. 19-CR-003472 & 22-CR-002224
COUNSEL FOR APPELLANT: Christopher Barrett Thurman, Louisville Metro Public Defender.
COUNSEL FOR APPELLEE: Russell M. Coleman, Attorney General of Kentucky, Jeffrey Allan Cross, Assistant Solicitor General.
Lance Bowman was convicted of murder, tampering with physical evidence, and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon in relation to the shooting death of James Mentee, Jr.He was farther found to be a first-degree persistent felony offender (PFO 1st) and was sentenced to fifty years’ imprisonment.He now appeals his convictions and sentence as a matter of right.Ky. Const. § 110.After review, we affirm.
On December 19, 2019, at 11:38 pm Bowman walked into the front door of Retta’s Lounge (Retta’s), located on South 7th Street in Louisville.Retta’s was described as a hookah lounge, a bar, and a restaurant, and was owned by Mentee.Of particular import, Retta’s had interior and exterior security cameras that captured the events leading up to and immediately following Mentee’s death.One of the exterior cameras covered the front door and the concrete "porch" area just outside the front door, and another exterior camera covered a wide angle of the parking lot and a small sliver of the outer portion of the porch.Though the video footage from the cameras is high quality, it did not capture audio.
Roughly five minutes after Bowman entered Retta’s, he was approached by Arthur Simpson, one of the security guards for the establishment.Simpson walked Bowman back outside onto the front porch area.When Bowman and Simpson first exited onto the porch, they appeared to have a somewhat tense conversation, but it never became physical.We note here that the footage clearly showed a pistol sticking out of Simpson’s waistband.Soon after, Dwayne Hill got out of his car, walked onto the porch, and began talking to Bowman and Simpson.Again, it appears from the footage that Bowman was upset about something, but the three men seemingly talked calmly; they smiled and laughed and at one point Bowman even patted Simpson on his stomach in a playful way.
A few minutes later, a woman came out of the front door and sat on the open tailgate of a truck parked just in front of the porch.She and Bowman talked normally for a while, until the woman said something that apparently upset Bowman as she was walking back toward the front door.He got in her face in an aggressive manner, and Simpson put his hand on Bowman’s shoulder to nudge him back.The woman then went back inside, and Bowman, Simpson, and Hill continued to stand around and talk.Shortly thereafter, Mentee came outside.From the time Simpson escorted Bowman out of Retta’s to the time Mentee came outside was approximately ten minutes.
When Mentee came outside, he shut the tailgate of the truck on which the unidentified woman had previously been sitting.He then walked back toward the front door and opened it.But before he could enter, Bowman said something to him, and he stopped.Mentee then said something in return that Bowman did not like based on his facial expression.Mentee remained standing in front of the door while Bowman then stepped toward him until the men were nearly chest to chest.The men then began talking while Simpson, Hill, and a third unidentified man stood close by.
At that point Mentee was saying something to Bowman, and Bowman appeared agitated.Simpson then stepped between Bowman and Mentee to get Bowman to back away.Simpson and the unidentified man then stood between Bowman and Mentee while Bowman continued saying something and pointing his finger at Mentee.All the while Mentee continued to stand in the same spot and respond; often his hands were palms up in front of him.Hill then moved to also stand near Bow- man and over the next minute or so Bowman lightly jostled back and forth with Simpson, Hill, and the unidentified man.Bowman was very upset by this point, and he gestured his pistol over Simpson’s shoulder in Mentee’s direction at least once.
Bowman then walked away towards the parking lot and completely out of frame for a few seconds before charging back into frame with his pistol pointed at Mentee’s head.Mentee grabbed the gun and pointed it down, the men began to struggle over it, and one shot was fired near Mentee’s head while Bowman was still holding the gun, but it missed.The men continued to grapple over the gun and went completely out of the camera’s view.Mentee was soon after shot in his upper left chest, but the shooting itself was not captured by any of the security cameras.The bullet that struck Mentee traveled left to right, downward, and slightly back, and was consistent with being a .45 caliber G2 Research "R.I.P."(radically invasive projectile) round.This is a unique bullet that has a solid copper base and a triangular shaped tip made of trocars that are designed to break off from the base and spread upon impact.No weapon of any kind was found with Mentee’s body and a subsequent toxicology screen determined he had no drugs of abuse or alcohol in his system.Forensic testing of Bowman’s gun concluded that the DNA of both Mentee and Bowman was on the trigger, grip, slide, sight, and barrel of the gun.
After Mentee was shot, the security camera overlooking the parking lot captured Bowman get up from the scuffle.It appears he then struck Mentee’s body with his gun and walked away, gun in hand.Simpson then fired several .9mm rounds in Bowman’s direction, and one struck his upper foot/ankle.1Bowman walked south on 7th Street for a short distance before crossing the street onto Phyllis Avenue.While behind a residence on Phyllis Avenue he placed his gun between the home’s HVAC unit and a stack of boards.Bowman then hid in the home’s backyard until several law enforcement officers found him after responding to Retta’s and following the blood trail left by the gunshot wound to his foot.After he was handcuffed and sent to the hospital, he was questioned by two different officers at different times.He told the first officer that the shooting was in self-defense, but two hours later he told a different officer that he was not at Retta’s that night, that he did not have a gun, and that he knew nothing about the shooting.
At trial, Bowman testified in his own defense as follows.Bowman was born and raised in Louisville’s west end, which in general is not a safe place.That is why he continued to carry a gun for self-protection notwithstanding his status as a convicted felon.From June to September 2019, he worked at Retta’s as a security guard, but Mentee was not his boss.Rather, he worked for a man he called "Brooklyn" who would send his employees, including Bowman and Simpson, to different locations as needed.Bowman was fired from that position in September 2019 after an incident at Retta’s during which he was jumped by two men.That night, Mentee asked Bowman to tell the two men to leave because of their disruptive behavior, and he did so.Rather than leave, the two men went to speak to Mentee; a conversation Bowman said he observed.Bowman claimed he heard Mentee say "yeah, go ahead, I don’t care" to the men, and he was jumped by them shortly thereafter.Bowman did not know who the men were and never saw them again.
Two to three weeks after that incident, Brooklyn asked Bowman to call Mentee because Mentee wanted him to be a security guard at Retta’s again.Bowman spoke to Mentee, and Bowman believed they were back on good terms based on that conversation.
On the night of the shooting, Bowman said Simpson escorted him to the porch area because Bowman had a gun.Ordinarily, a security guard would have checked him before he entered, but there was no one at the front door when he entered Retta’s.He claimed he was not asked to leave the premises; he just could not be inside with a firearm.Bowman further claimed that he did not trust Simpson or Hill, he was not friends with them, and he believed Simpson was dangerous.When they first exited Retta’s, he and Simpson were discussing an incident that occurred the last time Bowman was at Retta’s during which Bowman prevented Simpson from being jumped.It is unclear exactly when that incident occurred, but it was after Bowman had been jumped at Retta’s.Regarding Bowman getting in the unidentified woman’s face on the night of the shooting, he claimed he did so because she told him she heard everyone from Louisville were "rats."Bowman testified the worst thing you can call someone in the west end is a "rat."
Bowman further explained that when Mentee came outside Bowman asked him if they"were cool" and Mentee said no because Bowman was disrespectful.Bowman said Mentee was referring to the night he prevented Simpson from being jumped.Bowman felt as though Mentee was "picking at him."After that, Bowman claimed that Simpson, Hill, and the third unidentified male started to pull him away from Mentee and began threatening him.One of them told him, "You’re going to make me lay you out out here" because Bowman was "acting tough."Mentee was also making threats and told Bowman he"would have the whole south side at [Bowman’s] momma’s house."Bowman claimed he was holding his gun in his hand because the three men kept trying to take it from him, but said he never pulled it out of his waistband.
Bowman then claimed Mentee told him he was the reason Bowman had been jumped previously and that if he ever came back to Retta’s, it would happen again or worse.That was the point at which Bowman turned and began to walk away until he heard Mentee again say that he would have the whole south side at his mother’s house and heard Mentee shout "get rid of him."At that point he got...
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