Clay County woman awaiting trial for 5 years receives COVID-related mistrial

A mistrial was declared Wednesday in Clay County, further prolonging the case of a woman who has been jailed more than five years awaiting trial.

Viola Bowman was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action on Jan. 6, 2015.

Her trial began Friday with jury selection, but ended Wednesday because of potential COVID-19 exposures involving a juror and a court staff member, according to the Clay County Circuit Clerk’s Office.

Bowman is charged in the death of her husband, Albert “Rusty” Bowman, who was shot Nov. 7, 2012. It appeared to be a burglary gone wrong.

Police took Bowman in for questioning nearly two years after the homicide. She was arrested several months later.

Prosecutors accuse Bowman of killing her husband and staging the scene to look like a break-in. The prosecutors conceded that the case is circumstantial, but say Albert Bowman was killed with his own gun, which had been locked away, and Bowman made contradictory statements during the investigation.

The 59-year-old’s case was highlighted last year in an investigation by The Star on Missouri’s public defender system.

Bowman’s first public defender had up to 227 other cases and her case was delayed more than 35 times.

Another public defender took over her case in September 2019.

Last year, the Missouri Public Defender’s System handled more than 73,000 cases, according to a budget report from the system.

Bowman is a plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging major failures on the part of the public defender system. That case is scheduled to go back to court Nov. 17, according to the ACLU of Missouri.

In April, Bowman rejected a plea deal downgrading the murder charge to voluntary manslaughter. She would have been sentenced to five years in jail with credit for time served.

“I did not do this,” Bowman told a judge at the hearing.

The Clay County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on the case or the amount of time it has taken to get to trial.

A new trial date will be set Nov. 19.

This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 4:28 PM.

Katie Moore

The Kansas City Star

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Katie Moore was an enterprise and accountability reporter for The Star. She covered justice issues, including policing, prison conditions and the death penalty. She is a University of Kansas graduate and began her career as a reporter in 2015 in her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.