Murder admitted in YMCA killing
Benjamin Bowman said he killed his childhood friend over an alleged drug debt.
The paths of two teenagers, childhood friends from Coatesville, crossed for a final time at the YMCA in Kennett Square on the evening of July 4, 2006.
Yesterday in Chester County Court, Benjamin Bowman confessed to inviting Ra'jhun Tinson, 19, to take a late-night swim and then fatally shooting him over an alleged drug debt.
Bowman, then 18, admitted that he left the body next to the outdoor pool fence, where YMCA workers preparing for a family swim meet found Tinson the next morning.
During an emotional proceeding attended by the defendant's and the victim's relatives - some of whom were members of both families - Bowman entered a negotiated guilty plea that will send him to state prison for 25 to 50 years.
"I don't know where I went wrong," Bowman said. "I loved Ra'jhun. The street happens. . . . I was living through eyes that weren't mine."
Apologizing to both families, Bowman said he decided to take responsibility for his actions, a dramatic reversal of his earlier behavior.
Chester County First Assistant District Attorney Patrick Carmody said that Bowman had lied during an initial interview with investigators, but that witnesses helped police quickly close in on him. A murder warrant was issued for Bowman a week after the homicide, but Bowman fled, Carmody said.
"Kennett Square Detective Jack Trevisan and Chester County detectives never gave up on this case," Carmody said.
On Sept. 17, 2006, divers retrieved the murder weapon - a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver - from a Coatesville reservoir where Bowman had tossed it.
On April 12, 2007, police apprehended Bowman in Sumter, S.C., but he escaped in handcuffs. The next day, Carmody said, officers located Bowman at a residence, where he used a child as a shield, then ran to the roof and jumped into a neighboring yard. After a brief chase, police caught him with drugs and a gun in his possession, Carmody said.
Bowman was charged with first-degree murder. Under the terms of the agreement, however, he pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, possessing an instrument of crime, and flight to avoid apprehension, thus avoiding the risk of a life sentence.
Describing a tragedy that "split the families apart," the Rev. Darryl Perry - Bowman's stepfather and a cousin of Tinson's uncle - said during the hearing that he hoped for healing.
"I speak against violence as a pastor," he said. "To have this hit here at home, it hurts."
Accepting the plea bargain, Judge Anthony A. Sarcione urged Bowman to remember the devastating effect he had on so many lives. Both Bowman and Tinson have 3-year-old daughters.
"It's just baffling to me," the judge said. "We're living in a violent world."