Jurors view videotaped confession in buried alive horror

<p>A jury in the capital murder trial of an Alabama man watched his videotaped confession to killing a 12-year-old boy whose wounded father crawled from a shallow grave in what lawyers on both sides called a horror tale.</p><p>On the tape played in court Wednesday, Jimmy Lee Brooks Jr., 25, of Smiths Station, said he killed the boy, Brett Bowyer of Phenix City.</p><p>I shot him in his head, Brooks said, sobbing and covering his face with both hands.</p><p>Prosecutors said the boy and his father, Phenix City car salesman Forest Butch Bowyer, were abducted from their home by two men who took $47,000 and a gun from the house. Taken to a remote site, the boy was shot and the fathers throat was cut. Left for dead beside his son in a makeshift grave, the father survived.</p><p>Jurors also watched a video taken from Deputy D.W. Powells patrol car as he responded to the scene and was met by a hysterical, bloody Bowyer screaming how Brooks and another man slit his throat and murdered his son.</p><p>A second defendant, Michael David Carruth, 45, a bail bondsman from LaGrange, Ga., was convicted in October in Russell County and sentenced to death. Brooks trial was moved to Talladega County because of publicity. Testimony continued Thursday.</p><p>Brooks gave a detailed confession to sheriffs investigators after his arrest on Feb. 18, 2002 _ the day following the slaying.</p><p>I know I wasnt doing nothing right, but I was so down and out and broke I kind of swallowed my conscience, Brooks said, blaming Carruth for the deadly scheme.</p><p>Russell County prosecutor Kenneth Davis told jurors in opening statements Wednesday that the case amounts to a horror tale that would rival the works of Edgar Allen Poe.</p><p>But this is not a work of fiction, Davis said.</p><p>Defense attorney Joel Collins agreed its a horror tale. But he said Carruth set it in motion, not Brooks.</p><p>Ninety-seven percent of the evidence theyre showing you is an indictment on Michael David Carruth _ cold, calculating Carruth, Collins said.</p><p>Brooks sat motionless at the defense table as the jury viewed the videotaped confession.</p><p>On the tape, Brooks said he believed the father and son would be released at a construction site, but instead he watched as Carruth slit the throat of Butch Bowyer, who fell with his face to the ground, apparently dead.</p><p>Brooks described burying the bodies at an isolated spot off U.S. 431 near Seale, cleaning Carruths car and dividing the stolen money.</p><p>He said Carruth began talking about his plans to get rich growing marijuana, but Brooks cut him short: I cant do it no more. That little kid is dead. . .. Ill have nightmares for the rest of my life.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/2/177247