A jury seated Tuesday afternoon in Judge Christopher Gee’s courtroom will visit the Graley home Wednesday morning before hearing testimony in the case.
Another jury that heard evidence last summer found Bowen guilty of felony safecracking but was unable to reach agreement on felony charges of murder, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. Gee declared a mistrial.
Janna Parker, assistant prosecuting attorney, said Tuesday that Graley died when he was struck 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 he was broke, unemployed, homeless and had a young child to support, Parker said.
“Joe opened up his home to him. Within a matter of days, he was dead,” Parker said in her remarks.
The opening statements are not evidence, but a summary of what attorneys in the case claim evidence will show.
Parker said Graley was last seen alive Oct. 8, 2014, but his remains were not fund until Oct. 23. In between friends and family asked Bowen repeatedly where he was and were given differing stories, she said.
“In the two weeks Joe was missing … the only one who didn’t seem to show any concern” was Bowen, Parker said. She claimed Bowen stayed in Graley’s house, used his car, played his video games and even sold Graley’s drugs.
Defense lawyer Steve Layman, a county public defender, said police procedure in the case would be questioned.
He said prosecutors had evidence potentially linking Bowen to a crime but couldn’t make critical connections needed to move him from a suspect to a murderer.
Layman asked the jury to look for when the murder took place and where and for explanations on how Bowen’s DNA got on the sledgehammer.
“You have to allow your common sense to look at the big picture,” Layman said. “When you consider the unknowns with the knowns, you will have considerable doubt.”
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