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Thread: Kevin Brian Dowling - Pennsylvania

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    Kevin Brian Dowling - Pennsylvania





    Summary of Offense:

    Kevin Dowling was sentenced to death for killing Jennifer Myers in order to prevent her from testifying against him. Jennifer, a mother of two, was murdered at her art gallery and frame shop on Route 116 near Spring Grove just days before Dowling was to stand trial for robbing and sexually assaulting her at the store in August 1996.

    On December 14, 1998, Dowling was sentenced to death in York County.

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On October 23, 2006, Dowling filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/pen...cv02085/65108/

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Last court action: The U.S. Middle District Court lifted his stay of execution on December 7, 2012. Lebanon County Senior Judge Robert Eby struck Dowling's petitions to file an amended writ of habeas corpus and post-conviction relief in May. Eby ruled Dowling's case remains stayed until further action by the Middle District Court.

    http://www.ydr.com/crime/ci_23700241...h-warrants-has

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    Appeal denied for death-row inmate who murdered Spring Grove shop owner

    York County death-row murderer Kevin Brian Dowling's latest appeal was denied before it even began.

    Dowling, 56, formerly of Lancaster County, was convicted in 1998 of killing Spring Grove shop owner Jennifer Lynn Myers to keep her from testifying against him. She was shot in the chest, shoulder and left eye.

    Myers, 44, of Paradise Township, was murdered Oct. 20, 1997 — two days before she was to take the stand against Dowling. She had previously identified him as the man who robbed and tried to rape her Aug. 6, 1996, when she worked at Tailfeathers framing gallery in West Manchester Township.

    Two convictions: Dowling was later convicted of the robbery and attempted rape and sentenced to nine to 18 years in prison. He was convicted separately of first-degree murder for executing Myers and was sentenced to death.

    On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to hear Dowling's appeal on his robbery and attempted rape conviction, according to court records.

    In September 2005, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld Dowling's murder conviction, stating there was "clearly sufficient evidence" to convict.

    Dowling was scheduled to be executed in February 2007, but a federal judge granted the killer a stay of execution to allow for further appeals.

    During the murder investigation, Dowling initially gave police an alibi tape he made of himself fishing the day Myers was killed.

    Fishing alibi sank: But testimony showed that although Dowling claimed the taping occurred over several hours, the sun never moved in the sky. An expert testified that meant Dowling lied about the "times" documented on the tape.

    Later, Dowling said the fishing tape was never meant to be his alibi, that in fact at the time Myers was being executed, he was in a Harrisburg strip bar.

    In April 2003, the television show "Forensic Files" featured Dowling's case in an episode called "Shadow of a Doubt."

    In the years since his conviction, Dowling has filed appeals claiming he was the victim of a vast conspiracy that included now-retired Common Pleas Judge Sheryl Ann Dorney, police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the victim's widower, strippers and even former Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker.

    His attorneys, both with the Federal Community Defender Office in Philadelphia, did not return a phone message seeking comment.

    http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking...urdered-spring
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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Dowling's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Superior Court of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg Office
    Case Nos.: (744 MDA 2013)
    Decision Date: July 9, 2014
    Discretionary Court
    Decision Date: January 21, 2015

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.a...es/14-9572.htm

  6. #6
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Kevin Dowling and John Amos Small: 2 York County death row inmates back in court

    Two men on death row for decades-old homicides in York County had post-conviction relief hearings in county court on Monday.

    Dowling has been imprisoned since 1998 after he robbed and attempted to rape Spring Grove art gallery owner Jennifer Myers, 44, before later shooting and killing her in 1997 just days before she was scheduled to testify against him in his trial. He provided law enforcement with an alibi tape of himself fishing, supposedly at the time of the murder — but expert testimony during trial cast doubt on the tape's validity.

    At the hearing Monday, Dowling's attorney, public defender Tracy L. Ulstad, requested a new trial on grounds that false evidence was presented during trial.

    Judge Robert J. Eby did not make a ruling at the hearing and said he would consider the request.

    Executions in Pa.: Pennsylvania has only executed three inmates since 1995, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections; Gov. Tom Wolf also issued a moratorium on executions in 2015.

    Small had a listed execution date of Oct. 28, 2009, and Dowling had an execution set for Feb. 27, 2007. Both executions have since been stayed. Generally, executions can’t take place until a death row inmate has exhausted all post-conviction relief options.

    Both men are being held at the SCI Phoenix prison in Collegeville.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.yor...amp/7949447002
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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Kevin Dowling, sentenced to death in infamous 1997 Spring Grove murder, awarded new trial

    On Aug. 5, 1996, Jennifer Myers was robbed of about $40, tied up and sexually assaulted at her business, Tailfeather Gallery, in West Manchester Township. The perpetrator gagged her with a shirt and, at one point, pointed a handgun at her and threatened to shoot if she didn’t shut up.

    Myers did not know her assailant. But she later recognized her attacker at a Sheetz in Hanover: Kevin Brian Dowling.

    Jennifer Myers, a mother of two, rose aficionado and owner of Gray Fox Art Gallery in Spring Grove, was shot and killed on Oct. 20, 1997.

    Not long before she was set to testify against him, Myers, a mother of 2 and rose aficionado, was shot and killed at her new business, Gray Fox Gallery in Spring Forge Plaza in Spring Grove, at about 1 p.m. on Oct. 20, 1997.

    The sole eyewitness who testified at Dowling's murder trial — Sandra Eller — stated that she had “no doubt at all” that she saw him in the parking lot of the shopping center on the day of the deadly shooting after grocery shopping.

    Eller said she wasn't sure of the exact time. She testified that it could have been about 11:20 or 11:30 a.m.

    Though her receipt from Kennie’s Market listed the time as 10:50 a.m., Pennsylvania State Police Trooper William Mowrey testified that clock in the cash register was behind and inaccurate.

    Dowling was found guilty of first-degree murder in 1998 and sentenced to death.

    The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office — which has handled court proceedings after Dowling's conviction — now concedes that the timestamp on the receipt from Kennie's Market that morning was, in fact, accurate. So Eller, a judge has determined, must have been mistaken when she made that identification.

    More than 24 years after the killing, Lebanon County Senior Judge Robert J. Eby on Feb. 22 awarded Dowling, now 63, of East Petersburg, Lancaster County, a new trial, ruling that his defense attorney was ineffective and that prosecutors did not turn over exculpatory evidence and presented false testimony about the receipt from the supermarket.

    “This Court has thoroughly considered whether trial counsel provided effective assistance of counsel to Petitioner during his trial,” Eby wrote in a 31-page opinion. “We conclude that he did not.”

    “This Court has also thoroughly and extensively considered whether the Commonwealth participated in the suppression of exculpatory evidence prior to Petitioner’s trial in October and November of 1998, as well as whether the Commonwealth failed to correct testimony of both Eller and Trooper Mowrey which it knew or should have known to be materially false,” he added. “On both of these issues, we concluded that is has.”

    Lebanon County Senior Judge Robert J. Eby on Feb. 22 awarded a new trial to Kevin Dowling, now 63, of East Petersburg, Lancaster County, who had been found guilty of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death in the killing of Jennifer Myers, the owner of Gray Fox Art Gallery in Spring Grove, on Oct. 20, 1997.

    In an email, Assistant Federal Defender Tracy Ulstad, Dowling’s new attorney, said she had no comment at this time.

    Dowling’s trial attorney, Jerry Lord, also declined to comment. Former York County First Assistant District Attorney Tom Kelley, who prosecuted the case, asked for a copy of the opinion and stated "we never didn't disclose anything."

    In a statement, Molly Stieber, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, said, “We respectfully disagree with the conclusion reached by the court and plan to appeal."

    Mowrey testified that he went to Kennie’s Market five days after the deadly shooting to investigate whether the timestamps on receipts were correct, according to the opinion.

    Eller’s receipt, his police report indicates, shows that the sale started at 10:45 a.m. on Oct. 20, 1997. Mowrey said investigators checked that cash register — Register No. 6 — and determined that the time printed on receipts was 20 minutes behind on that date.

    Law enforcement inspected the other registers at the supermarket and found that each showed a different time, according to his police report. Mowrey reported that police collected four register receipt rolls and placed them into evidence.

    Mowrey did not describe his methodology as well as how he reached the conclusion that the times on all the registers were incorrect, the opinion states.

    Right before trial in 1998, Mowrey went back to Kennie’s Market to again check the times on the registers.

    Register No. 6, he testified, was 11 minutes slow. His police report, though, indicated there was a time discrepancy of 17 minutes.

    A Bucks County jury that was brought in for the trial because of press coverage, the opinion states, received a copy of Eller’s receipt with a handwritten note that specified, “20 minutes off.”

    Dowling's wife, Joanne, provided investigators with a videotape that purported to show her husband fishing at the time of the murder on Muddy Run Lake in Lancaster County.

    Robert Boyle, a professor of physics and astronomy at Dickinson College, reviewed the footage and, using shadows and the angle of the sun, determined that some of the times in the videotape had been changed.

    Dowling conceded that he’d altered the times. That’s because, he said, he did not want his wife to know that he’d grown bored with fishing and left to go to a strip club in Harrisburg.

    During the trial, Clarence Hess, the rental boat proprietor at Muddy Run Lake, which is 40 miles away from Spring Forge Plaza, testified that Dowling got into a boat at about 10:20 a.m. and was on the water for 30 to 45 minutes, according to the opinion.

    Prosecutors presented evidence at trial that it takes one hour and three minutes, or one hour and eight minutes, to drive from Muddy Run Lake to Spring Forge Plaza.

    Based on the prosecution's evidence, Dowling would not have been able to make it to the shopping center until 11:50 a.m. at the earliest — one hour after Eller had already checked out, Eby noted. Because the time on her receipt is accurate, the judge noted, she must have been mistaken in her identification.

    Kenneth Hewitt, of WSR Consulting Group LLC, provided an expert report that the internal register clock was accurate on Register No. 6. Christienne Genaro, with PayGility Advisors, independently confirmed his findings and submitted her own report, according to the opinion.

    Prosecutors hired their own experts, Dennis and Jeffrey Houser of Financial Forensic Consultants LLC, who reported that they would testify that they agreed with the findings of the defense experts.

    First, Eby determined that Lord provided ineffective assistance of counsel.

    Lord, he said, failed to request access to “readily available exculpatory evidence:" the four receipt rolls. He also did not investigate whether the time on the receipt was accurate.

    Instead, Lord called Mowrey to testify that the time on the receipt was “off" and erroneously strengthened Eller's testimony.

    “*This item is very important,” Lord wrote in a memo that he faxed to his investigator, Bill Donivan, days before jury selection. “If we can establish the clock was definitely off by 20 minutes on 10/20/97, it will establish Dowling could not have been the guy S. Eller saw at Kennies on the morning of 10/20/97 …”

    If Lord had requested the register rolls and investigated, he would’ve had “objective proof” that his client was not the man whom Eller saw outside Kennie’s Market. And he would’ve been able to show that Mowrey’s conclusions were "baseless and patently false," Eby said.

    Mowrey, he said, was not competent to provide an expert opinion.

    Eby remarked that memo provided him with a “clear window into trial counsel’s flawed thought process, resulting in an unreasonable trial strategy.”

    Lord later testified and did not offer a reason for not hiring a point-of-sale expert besides that he was not familiar with any defense attorneys and assistant district attorneys hiring them. But Eby stated that was common in 1998.

    "Had he done any of these things, it is clear there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different," Eby said. "Petitioner was prejudiced."

    Also of interest: His son faces the death penalty in a deadly shooting at Regal West Manchester. Why this York father blames himself.

    Second, Eby ruled that prosecutors failed to turn over the receipt rolls, which were exculpatory.

    Prosecutors, he said, knew that the time when Eller checked out was important their case. They knew, or should have known, that her identification must’ve been mistaken, Eby said.

    "Nevertheless, at trial, the Commonwealth relied upon the incompetent, unscientific and undocumented investigation of Trooper Mowrey in an attempt to bolster Eller's testimony and convince the jury that her receipt was inaccurate,” Eby said.

    Eby said there is "more than a reasonable likelihood that this false testimony could have affected the judgment of the jury."

    Dowling is currently incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix, according to prison records.

    (source: York Daily Record)
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  8. #8
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Dowling was resentenced to 5-10 years.

    https://www.cor.pa.gov/About%20Us/In...on%20list.xlsx
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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