A Columbia County woman and her son accused of fatally beating her neighbor in March will be tried by different juries in separate trials.
Rebecca Bowers Sears, 41, of the 200 block of Hot Springs Drive, and Christopher Sean Bowers, of the 400 block of Briarwood Drive, Martinez, are accused of beating Laverne “Kay” Parsons, Sears’ former co-worker, on March 25. In May, they pleaded not guilty to murder, armed robbery and burglary.
District Attorney Ashley Wright plans to seek the death penalty.
“By law, we’re required to try them separately,” Ms. Wright said at a hearing for pre-trial motions in Columbia County on Thursday.
Ms. Sears’ attorney, Victor Hawk, and Bowers’ attorney, Jacque Hawk, withdrew previous motions requesting that their clients be allowed to visit and review the crime scene with their attorneys.
Superior Court Judge Sheryl Jolly approved a request by the defense attorneys to declare Ms. Sears and Mr. Bowers indigent, so a second attorney can be appointed by the state at not cost to help defend them. By law, defendants charged in death penalty cases are allowed to have a second attorney.
“The (Sears and Bowers) family has put out a lot to save at least half of the cost,” said Jacque Hawk, who was hired with his brother, Victor, to defend the mother and son.
The Hawks agreed that they have many other pending motions, many pertaining to evidence, that they can’t yet present to the judge because all the evidence has not been turned over to them. That evidence includes results from DNA and other scientific testing as well as land line and cell phone records.
Ms. Wright said many of the tests are dependent on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab and will be shared with the defense attorneys as soon as the testing is complete and results are made available.
“Once we get all the information, I think we’ll be able to move fairly quickly,” Jacque Hawk said.
Prosecution and defense attorneys hope to discuss evidentiary motions at a hearing scheduled for December or possibly at not yet scheduled hearings in January or February.
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More dumb criminals. When will people learn to take responsibility for their actions? The Hawks are good, but not that good. I am patiently awaiting the A. Hargrove case to see what this whacko was doing when he killed three people and a fetus. I think they need to bring the guillotine back.
Guess what will happen, I served on the jury for a capitol murder case and they blame each other and also blame the other person for inflicting the fatal blow that kills the person, so then the jury gets stuck because a couple of people won't vote death because of that fact!!! Total waste of the tax payers money!!! And coomon sense will not work in the jury room!!
The son must really be a work of art to be persuaded to participate in murder. Of course the mother trying to influence the son speaks volumes for her character. also. These two pieces of human scum deserve the same fate as they inflicted upon their victim.
pray tell ya'all how much compassion the good Lord will give YOU at the judgement bar.. as we will all recieve just as much compassion for our human failings as we ourselves gave to others.. this does not dimish the facts in this case, which should lead a fair minded jury to sentence them to at least Life, but more likely we may be spared the expense of a drawn out trial and the pair will plead out for a life sentence. I know you old testament 'eye for an eye' people won't like it, but Life in prison IS a pretty substantial punishment.
That lady and her son need to rotten in jail how could they murder someone I bet over something foolish some peoples take life as nothing but why should the tax payer front the bill put to sleep is a substantial punishment the judge shouldn,t spare ther life cause they didn,t spare that person life. So fry them slimeball.
Neither will be sentenced to death because the defense has all the wild cards. Jury selection is the key, so watch for the errors that will occur and how this pair easily beats the system.
Oh they won't beat the system. They are playing the odds. They want separate trails so they both won't get the death penalty. Smart, but I wager they both end up on death row. And I bet there's a lot of dirt behind this one. It will prove to be very, very interesting.