Four years don't erase anguish

Police officers testify a murderer's girlfriend hindered them before two detectives were slain.

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 19, 2002

Related video

56k | High-Speed

TAMPA -- Even four years later, Officer John Simmons found the names hard to say.

Called to the stand at the Hillsborough courthouse Tuesday, the burly officer calmly described watching paramedics try to revive a 4-year-old boy after Hank Earl Carr shot him in the face on May 19, 1998.

In measured tones, the officer said Carr gave investigators a false name that morning, and Bernice Bowen, Carr's girlfriend and the mother of the fatally wounded child, backed up his lie.

But when he was asked about what happened later that afternoon -- Carr's escape from police custody and the killings of Tampa Detectives Randy Bell and Ricky Childers -- Simmons' aura of cool professionalism cracked.

While Bowen, who is on trial accused of abetting the murders, watched, Simmons cried, trying to get out the names of his slain colleagues.

On Tuesday, the second day of Bowen's trial, prosecutor Curt Allen called a series of police officers to the stand to hammer home a point central to the state's case: that Carr repeatedly gave the erroneous name Joseph Lee Bennett on May 19, 1998, and Bowen repeatedly corroborated it.

Prosecutors say Bowen lied about Carr's identity in order to stymie police efforts to catch him on the day of the murders as part of a longtime agreement between them that when police came, she would stall so he could run.

Officers testified Tuesday that they found a cache of firearms and bullet-proof armor at the apartment Carr and Bowen shared, along with books on the nuances of concealing one's identity.

In 1999, a jury found Bowen guilty of aiding Carr in the murders of the Tampa detectives and a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, as well as in the death of Bowen's 4-year-old son and in Carr's escape from police.

But an appeals court threw out the charges related to the death of the boy and the trooper, and Bowen, 28, is now facing retrial on the remaining charges. She is expected to testify as the defense begins presenting its case today to the jury of six women and one man.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright