Attorneys seek to remove second judge in slaying of 12-year-old

PHENIX CITY, ALABAMA - Attorneys for two men accused of killing 12-year-old Brett Bowyer and leaving his father for dead are trying to have a second Russell County Circuit Court judge removed from the capital murder case. <br> <br> Judge Albert Johnson has scheduled an Oct. 10 hearing on attorneys&#39; motions seeking his recusal on grounds that he signed search warrants in the case and could be a witness. <br> <br> Russell Circuit Judge George Greene was removed from the case against Michael David Carruth and Jimmy Lee Brooks last month by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. <br> <br> Defense attorneys argued that Greene should recuse himself because he is likely to be called to testify that he did not sign two bogus search warrants allegedly used by the defendants to gain entry to the home of Forest ``Butch&#39;&#39; Bowyer on Feb. 17, the night of the slaying. <br> <br> Authorities allege Carruth, 44, of LaGrange, Ga., and Brooks, 22, of Smiths Station, Ala., were posing as narcotics agents when they went to the Bowyer home. <br> <br> The men allegedly kidnapped the Phenix City car dealer and his son, forced Bowyer to show them where he had hidden $30,000 to $40,000 in cash, killed Brett by shooting him in the head and buried him. <br> <br> They also slashed the elder Bowyer&#39;s throat with a knife and left him for dead in the same shallow grave, according to investigators&#39; testimony.