Lee County man sentenced to death in slaying of 12-year-old boy

<p>A judge has sentenced a Lee County man to death for his part in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old Phenix City boy who was dumped into a makeshift grave with his wounded father.</p><p>Jimmy Lee Brooks, 25, of Smiths Station, was sentenced Thursday to death by lethal injection, as his jury had recommended. He was convicted two months ago in the Feb. 17, 2002 murder of Brett Bowyer and attempted murder of Brett's father, who survived a cut throat and climbed out of the shallow grave.</p><p>Brooks' trial was moved to Talladega County because of publicity.</p><p>A second defendant, Michael David Carruth, 45, of LaGrange, Ga., was sentenced to death earlier.</p><p>Brooks, accused of firing the shots that killed the boy, showed no emotion as Russell County Circuit Court Judge Al Johnson imposed the death penalty, which brings an automatic appeal. The judge described the crime as particularly heinous because of the "mental terror and torture committed on this child."</p><p>Terry Roberson, a spokesman for the Bowyer family, said the healing from Brett's death continues for the entire family. Legal victories mean only so much, he said.</p><p>"It doesn't create closure," he said. "It closes the legal part."</p><p>Johnson also sentenced Brooks to three consecutive life sentences plus $60,000 in fines for convictions on charges of attempted murder, robbery and burglary.</p><p>Brooks and Carruth, a former bail bondsman from LaGrange, were arrested hours after Brett and his father were kidnapped from their Phenix City home by two men posing as narcotics agents.</p><p>The kidnappers used fake search and arrest warrants to gain access to the Bowyer home, where they stole $47,000 and a pistol from a bedroom closet. They then drove the father and son to a remote construction site in south Russell County, where they shot Brett three times in the head.</p><p>His father, Forest "Butch" Bowyer, crawled out of the shallow grave and later identified Brooks as one of the assailants. "He pulled the trigger," the father testified. "He shot Brett."</p><p>Carruth was convicted by a Russell County jury in December and sentenced to death.</p><p>___</p><p>Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer</p>