Man accused in kidnap-slaying sentenced in separate case

PHENIX CITY, ALABAMA - A 22-year-old Smiths Station man, one of two men charged with abducting and murdering a 12-year-old boy, has been sentenced to six years in prison for breaking and entering vehicles. <br> <br> Jimmy Lee Brooks Jr. was sentenced Wednesday by Russell County Circuit Judge George Greene after pleading guilty to six counts of breaking and entering vehicles in August and September 2001. <br> <br> Brooks and Michael David Carruth, 43, of LaGrange, Ga., are charged with capital murder in the Feb. 17 slaying of 12-year-old Brett Bowyer. <br> <br> Robbers allegedly took the boy and his father, Forest ``Butch&#39;&#39; Bowyer, to a site 20 miles south of Phenix City after stealing $30,000 to $40,000 from their home. <br> <br> The abductors shot Brett three times in the head, slit his father&#39;s throat and left both for dead in a makeshift grave. Butch Bowyer crawled from the grave, walked to a highway and flagged down a passing motorist. <br> <br> Brooks, Carruth and a third man, James Edward Gary, 27, of Phenix City, face murder charges in Lee County in the slayings of Thurman Ratliff, 68, and his wife, Katherine Ratliff, 62, who were found slain in their home Jan. 30. <br> <br> Evidence from the killings went to grand juries in Russell County and Lee County this week.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/4/196156