Saying the suspect acted with “premeditated intent,” the King County Prosecuting Attorney has filed a charge of first degree murder against 29-year-old Dinh Bowman in the August 31st shooting death of Capitol Hill wine steward Yancy Noll. CHS reported on early evidence collected by police on Bowman including what prosecutors have called a sophisticated effort to conceal his Z4 BMW convertible and the suspect’s enthusiasm for guns.
Here is the statement on the charges from the prosecutor’s office:
Charges filed in North Seattle murder–A charge of Murder in the First Degree was filed today against ThomasDinh Bowman, who is accused in the August 31 slaying of Yancy Noll in Seattle’s Roosevelt neighborhood.
Bowman, 29, pulled up in his BMW convertible and allegedly fired several shots at Noll, who was in his car stopped at a red light at 15th and N.E. 75th Avenue. The murder charge includes a firearm sentencing enhancement. If convicted as charged, the sentence range is 25 to 31 years in prison. Arraignment is scheduled for October 8 at 8:30 a.m. at the King County Courthouse, courtroom 1201. Bowman is being held without bail.
The charging document embedded below includes details of the anonymous caller who first tipped police earlier this month starting a week of surveillance of Bowman before his arrest on Friday.
Noll is remembered as a friendly face at the Broadway Market QFC where he worked as wine steward since 2010. He was an avid outdoorsman. Noll was shot to death just minutes from his North Seattle apartment. He turned 43 earlier this year.
Following Saturday’s hearing when Bowman was denied bail, prosecutor Scott O’Toole told CHS his office was weighing whether evidence would support a more serious first degree charge against a second degree charge for a more impulsive crime.
The charging documents provide greater detail on evidence collected by SPD to date including more information about detective interviews with the suspect’s wife about the couple’s actions following the Friday night murder. Detectives have not yet found the gun that was used in the murder and details about what happened in the moments before Noll was shot to death at the intersection are still not clear.
Bowman remains held without bail. His next court appearance comes in early October.
The report is amazing very good detective work. Just curious it doesn’t say much about his wife other then they let her off after questioning if the can prove she knew and how couldn’t she will they charge her too. I sure hope so.
Unless his wife lived under a rock, how could she not suspect this? All over the news, a SILVER BMW at her home, that needed new paint, a window and tires all w/ in the last few weeks? I am not implicating her or that she was in the know, it’s just odd. Did they live separately?
Maybe if we didn’t let people carry concealed guns around these kinds of tragedies wouldn’t happen so often. It is time for us to do something about gun violence in this country. No more guns.
I think there is a strong possibility that the wife appears to be trying to help her husband, because she is terrified of him.
Most likely she was the one who called in with the anonymous tip. Her husband has major rage issues, hence she could be a victim of violence as well.
I too thought the wife might’ve called in the tip until reading the documents. But if she had called it in, why didn’t she say that after her husband was arrested? Instead, she really spun a web of lies, which you can read in the posted documents. About going to PDX and the window being broken down there, for ex. That’s when I lost sympathy for her. And going with him to Home Depot to buy things to fix the car (the receipt in her purse) and getting new tires and claiming to not know what happened to the old tires even though they were taken away in her car. She aided and abetted, and I bet John Browne will have a new client soon.
That genie has left the bottle years ago. I’m very much against guns as well,but it isn’t pragmatic (an unpopular word in this day and age) to just ban guns.
So sad all around, everyone is trying to get around it. Whatr bugs me the most, and also others after I metnion it was – whats teh deal with the wife? We all all know her name, and out of respect wont post her linkedin like other posters. It’s also fact that 2 cars went to replace tires in lynwood, and extras were driven home in her mercedes.
I guess it’s possible he took car out, dropped it off, tires fixed, drove it home, went back in wifes car and grabbed old tired himself – but due to urgency of hiding evidence wtf…
What do I know, im only phd on engineering and logictics.
In short – hey wife can you please explain yourself or move out of state?
If she really was that terrified of him, it’s quite possible she could’ve gone along with all that but still tip the police off. If she wasn’t the one who provided the tip, she needs to do time. There’s no way you’ll ever convince me she didn’t know. She knew.
I get what you’re saying, but if you haven’t walked in her shoes, you just don’t know. The guy’s an obvious psychopath. He might have had extreme control over her to the point she was terrified.
For her sake, I hope that’s it. Otherwise— she’s a piece of shit too.
I’m no detective but she sounds like a freaking liar based on how this reads.
Many people don’t read/watch the news.
But it sounds like she was lying.
It takes a weird girl to be with a weird guy.
I don’t see anything about premeditated murder: no planning, no motive. It seems like road rage with a gun, and a lame attempt to conceal a flashy car. So how does this make it 1st Degree? Why not just go for second degree?
My guess is that the time it took for him to turn around, go back, and pull up to the victim was enough time to consider it pre-meditated. But I’m must pulling that out of my *ss. He had to make a special effort to catch up to the victim and produce his gun, I guess.
Contrary to popular belief, murder doesn’t actually have to be premeditated to be considered murder in the first degree:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.32.030
——-
Murder in the first degree.
(1) A person is guilty of murder in the first degree when:
(a) With a premeditated intent to cause the death of another person, he or she causes the death of such person or of a third person; or
(b) Under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life, he or she engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to any person, and thereby causes the death of a person; or
(c) He or she commits or attempts to commit the crime of either (1) robbery in the first or second degree, (2) rape in the first or second degree, (3) burglary in the first degree, (4) arson in the first or second degree, or (5) kidnapping in the first or second degree, and in the course of or in furtherance of such crime or in immediate flight therefrom, he or she, or another participant, causes the death of a person other than one of the participants: Except that in any prosecution under this subdivision (1)(c) in which the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, if established by the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence, it is a defense that the defendant:
(i) Did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause, or aid the commission thereof; and
(ii) Was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any instrument, article, or substance readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury; and
(iii) Had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon, instrument, article, or substance; and
(iv) Had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury.
(2) Murder in the first degree is a class A felony.
——-
There are two separate definitions for first-degree murder here that have nothing to do with premeditation.
That said, with the time to consider his actions before doing it, I can see how this is considered premeditated. That word doesn’t just mean that you sit at home and hatch a murder plan and later execute it. It could also be that someone pisses you off, you decide to murder them, you chase them down for a block or two, and then you pull out a gun and kill them.
usual “Oh, he’s such a great guy/brother/son” comments from the family.
He’s going to DIE behind bars. I guarantee it. What I cannot guarantee is whose hand(s) will kill him. It may be the state of Washington, but given the liberal judges who are merciful to punks like this I have my doubts he’ll get a death sentence. And so my boys in the *Big House* are planning to put him down like a rabid pit bull. I know one guy in there named “streiker” who totally wants to cut his head off with a shank! LOLz….I’d love to see that.
He was. And you’re a dick for mocking people in mourning. Shame on you.