Lawyers will make the case Monday that the 30-year-old man jailed since October in the alleged road rage shooting death in North Seattle of Broadway QFC wine steward Yancy Noll should be freed on a reduced $1 million bail and released to home detention as the legal process around his trial unfolds.
Dinh Bowman has been held without bail since October when his defense attorney John Henry Browne entered a plea of not guilty on charges Bowman gunned down Noll in his vehicle just blocks from each of their homes. Browne’s legal team is now asking the court to set Bowman free as the legal process inches forward:
The first degree murder charges against Bowman could bring up to 31 years in prison if convicted.
“It would be difficult to overstate how strongly the state objects to Bowman’s release,” prosecutor Scott O’Toole told the Seattle Times about the request for bail.
Police say Bowman is an expert gunman who went to great lengths to try to cover up evidence in the case.
In its request for the $1 million bail, the defense team notes that Bowman has no criminal history and had a concealed-weapons permit for the firearms police found in his home. The document also includes letters from friends and acquaintances of Bowman — some of whom he met while dancing at Capitol Hill Century Ballroom — testifying to his character.
This assclown is going to get off easy enough, as it is. He doesn’t deserve to even see the light of day.
I can’t believe the defense even has the audacity to ask for this.
The people that loved Yancy far outnumber the 11 people that give a shit for this dude. We will do everything we can to make sure his ballroom dancing days are over, except with the prison guards perhaps.
Someone who gunned down a random stranger is a threat to the community.
The fact that he is only facing a max of 31 years is a disgrace. :(
It’s their job to ask. They can’t possibly believe the request will be granted.
Did the letter read like this by chance? Our friend is a great dancer, he really is, and he has great character, so much so, that on his way home from dancing with us, he treats his fellow humans with kindness in the form of road rage and murder…But he’s a good guy, honest, he really is.
Cat, You nailed it. This guy is a threat to random community members. The degree that he went to conceal and discard evidence shows his lack of remorse and determination. I’d rather a serial killer be on bail–at least we know his target.
Fucking this. How can the defense cite the “circumstances.” What circumstances justify shooting somebody through the passenger window of their car. Clearly Yancy posed no physical threat to this guy. Maybe if he had turned himself in and not gone to such extensive lengths to cover it up. This is even more ridiculous than 31 years for cold-blooded murder.
He’s totally a threat to the community! It sounds like there’s no doubt that he was the one that did it, going to great lengths to cover it up, and even 31 years is too little for what he’s done. He should be locked up for life!
So Bowman’s collected 11 character references from people including those he met out dancing?? That’s a joke! I’m sure Yancy’s people will bring hundred of letters to the court asking to keep him in. Sickened and disgusted that bail is even an option considering what he’s done.
If you can write your outrage here…you can better serve the processes by writing to the court. Do it now!
Anyone is welcome to send a letter to the court…you don’t have to be one of Yancy’s people. Share your outrage!
Who would we write to? The stories I’ve found online just say “King County Courtroom”. Is it enough to just address the envelope as “c/o the Dinh Bowman Trial”?
I get sad about Yancy every time I walk through the QFC.
First, my heart goes out to the family. Of course nothing is going to change what happened and keeping him in jail because of the negative impact this crime has had on the community really isn’t the most important point here to the larger community.
This is a shooter. This is shooter who chose to randomly shoot just one person this time. He is reportedly intelligent, an excellent target shooter and a young man with anger issues. He didn’t fire a warning shot and miss. It wasn’t a random shot. He shot to kill. He is a sociopath.
Now he is a man who is going to prison for 31 years. While many feel that those years are not enough, I’m sure it is not something this young man is looking forward to.
What will he spend his time doing while he is confined in his home? Dancing, maybe, or probably getting angrier and angrier while immersing himself in media violence through the tv, internet, video games?
Does a detention bracelet keep him from walking out of his house and inflicting more damage. Nope.
When an individual shows us who they are and how risky they are to our community we have only ourselves to blame if we don’t keep them behind bars when we have the legal power to do so.
The prosecutor is Scott O’Toole ~ [email protected]
This is the info on the KC Prosecutor website, too:
Administration / Human Resources
206-296-9067
206-296-9013 FAX
Bear in mind that Nathan Eckstein Middle School is four or five blocks from the suspect’s house. Why put a concentrated population of kids at risk? (Not to say that all sociopaths are built the same, but it does concern me.)
This makes me sick to think that someone can do this to another human being,drive up and intentionally shoot someone, and his attorney thinks he should be able to get off with no bail. He will leave the country – he has already covered up evidence- what makes you think he won’t flee.
Since this was first degree murder, why should he be handled with kid gloves???? It does make me sick!!!!
yeah, how dare the defense lawyers do their jobs. frankly i’m offended.
This is correct. It will go directly to the prosecuting attorney.
This “man”, for lack of a better word, may have had a concealed weapons permit, but that does NOT give him the right to blatantly and randomly use that gun on unarmed, innocent people anytime he feels the “urge.” His background and recent past (the incident itself and its subsequent cover up) show that this man has a penchant for bad choices. The minute he is released, he will find a way to flee. KEEP HIM IN JAIL!
I’ve yet to see any comment on any story from someone who supports Bowman. Surely these friends of his are following this story as closely as those of us who want to see him brought to justice. So please, friends, give us some insight as to why you think Dinh Bowman is innocent. I have a pretty open mind, but based on what was reported in the paper, Bowman (and his wife) should both rot in jail.
His current address is across the street from a preschool…need I say more.
I heard his house is on the market and is empty. By “current address” do you mean the house where he was living when he committed this crime or where he would go if he were let out on house arrest?
Thanks for finding that email, SL. I don’t know if writing an email to the prosecutor will actually make a difference, but I gave it a try.
This amoral murderer should get life in prison without the possibility of parole. Actually I would prefer he get the death penalty…is this not being pursued by the prosecutor? If not, why not?
I am a friend of his wife. I know her to be a warm and selfless person. Given the data available, I believe that people saying she should “rot” or go to prison are defaming her name and committing slander. From what we have seen in the initial police report, she cooperated with police without hesitation. If she had any inkling that anything was going on, would she have kept the car receipts in her purse and so willingly given them over to the police? It is easy to imagine how she could have been deceived into believing that the passenger side window had been broken in Portland. If police and detectives had sufficient proof that she was ACTIVELY involved, wouldn’t they have already arrested her? Their lack of an arrest after over 3 months of an investigation points to her innocence (obviously it doesn’t prove her innocence, but the facts as they currently exist simply don’t add up to her having explicit knowledge that her husband committed a murder, or knowledge of a cover-up). There is a huge leap between seeing one’s husband do miscellaneous work to his car and jumping to the conclusion that he has committed a murder, regardless of whether he owns a gun.
What happened to Yancy is a senseless tragedy and breaks my heart, and as far as I am concerned, Bowman’s wife is also a victim.
As for Dinh’s other friends, my understanding is that they are confused and shocked and are fearing that any public comment will not help anyone.
My uncle did not deserve to die the way that he did and just because he wants to play around in this world with peoples lives and get BAIL?! ARE YOU JOKING THAT SOB CAN ROT FOR ALL I CARE IT IS NOT REASONABLE TO LET THIS MAN TO EVER OWN A VEHICLE OR BE LET OUT INTO SOCIETY SINCE THE GAME HE LOVED WAS THE GAME OF MAN. HE DOESNT EVEN HAVE THE COURAGE TO APOLOGIZE AND OWN UP TO IT. THIS BETTER NOT FOLLOW THROUGH.
Pathetic coward, my uncle is GONE and reaped from any happiness he should have had remaining here in the world. How is that even fair.
);
Thanks for your response.
I live 2 blocks from the Bowmans. It was impossible to ignore the site of the shooting. It was clearly the route of their commute (him to SODO, her to BI).
I also do not believe that they drove to Portland with no passenger window without her noticing.
I do not believe she didn’t know.
She had to have known something, or suspected. I have wondered if she was the tipster.
I just want justice for Yancy.
Thank you for your civil response as well.
The drive to Portland also confused me, however I believe it’s possible that they drove with the windows down as it was a warm day, and then he somehow revealed that it was “broken into” after they came out of the restaurant.
The tipster was not her, I know who the tipster was but I am not willing to say publicly.
Regarding her knowledge of the site of the shooting, she did say she knew about the shooting to the police, although she did report confusion about it at first. She was working a limited schedule at the time and has no TV, so it’s easy to imagine that she did not have it foremost in her mind. I imagine she was out of her mind confused, sad and anxious while being questioned. Understand that they questioned her for hours and the police report shows only a small portion of what she said.
I want justice for Yancy as well. I never met him but went to his QFC many times. From what everyone says, he was a wonderful person who never did anyone wrong. This whole situation is just horrifying. I just ask for justice for Bowman’s wife as well. She has lost so much as well…without any actual evidence of her knowing anything or involved in a cover-up, isn’t it just adding to tragedy for her to lose her name, along with her husband and her career?
Well, that does give me some insight I guess and I agree that she is a victim in a lot of ways, even if she knew it must have seemed like a horrible nightmare since she certainly couldn’t have predicted he’d do this (although sounds like some “friends” of his could see him doing it). I imagine her knowing or suspecting, but not wanting to know or suspect so just going along with his stories about why he was working on the car, etc.
I hope she agrees to testify to what she knows and let justice take its course for her husband. I also hope she is able to rebuild a life for herself.
Now it sounds like they’ve agreed to bail. I really hope he can’t make it and stays in jail. Why is it taking so long to go to trial?
I’m not an idiot — I know full-well that defense attorneys work for their clients. I also know that most of the comments here are acting as if Bowman is guilty, whereas the DA is acting under an “innocent until proven guilty” framework. However, in the case of awful crimes, DAs typically don’t bother asking for things like this. Did James Holmes’ attorney ask for him to be released on bail? Hell no she didn’t. She knows even *asking* is disrespectful and pointless. Obviously, the crimes are not the same, but I would argue that the fact that Bowman is accused of intentionally killing a random man makes them more similar than dissimilar. Bowman probably pushed for this request himself, so screw that dude.
Anybody know how likely he is to post this or whether anyone ever has in Seattle? I.e., is this effectively no bail?