ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — An Asheville man will spend at least a year behind bars after pleading guilty in a fatal shooting case.
A release from Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams says on Monday, Aug. 11, 2024, Rodnee Rayshaun Bowman, 21, of Asheville, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Buncombe County Superior Court Judge Alan Thornburg sentenced Bowman to serve an active term of 144-185 months in the custody of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections.
The district attorney’s news release says Asheville police officers charged Bowman in the shooting death of Jailyn Dumari Morton, 24, at Hillcrest Apartments on Feb. 9, 2020.
Witnesses told law enforcement at the time that a fist fight had broken out involving Bowman and that while Morton was not involved in this particular fight, a partner of Mortan’s “made efforts to break up the fight,” the release says. After the fist fight ended, Morton and Bowman got into an argument and Bowman drew a 9mm pistol, shooting Morton in the right side of the chest, the DA says. Morton died shortly afterward from his injuries.
Surveillance video showed Bowman running from the scene.
The DA says Bowman was initially charged as a juvenile, “but North Carolina law mandates transfer to superior court for prosecution as an adult upon a finding of probable cause that a juvenile has committed the crime of first degree murder.”