THE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, July 10, 1980BUNNELL WOMAN HELD IN DEATH OF HUSBAND
A Bunnell woman, apparently distraught over a domestic quarrel, shot and killed her husband as he approached he Sunday afternoon, police say.
Francis Bowers, 53, was being held early this week in Flagler County Jail in the murder of her husband Jesse Eugene Bowers, 56.
Bowers was found alongside his wife's car when Bunnell Patrolman Dave Dempsey and Flagler County Sheriff's Deputy Charles Terrell arrived on the scene.
According to Dempsey, the couple had quarreled at the home of friends at 200 N. Anderson St. in Bunnell earlier in the day.
Mrs. Bowers left the house and reportedly told a neighbor, with whom she hitched a ride, that she was going to kill her husband. The woman went to her home at 410 N. Church St. and returned to the friend's house in the family car.
As Bowers approached the vehicle, his wife allegedly fired one shot from a .22-caliber pistol. The shot hit him in the left chest.
After being shot, Bowers continued to approach the car. He opened the door and pulled the gun from her hand and then turned back toward the house, called for help and collapsed, police said.
Bowers was pronounced dead at Bunnell Community Hospital about 3 p.m. An autopsy Monday revealed he died of internal bleeding caused by the bullet ricocheting off his rib cage and severing several arteries before lodging in the spine.
An eyewitness to the shooting called police just seconds before the incident. As police arrived, Mrs. Bowers said she was tired of her husband beating her.
Bowers would have been 57, Monday.
THE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, January 29, 1981PATHETIC SICK WOMAN - BOWERS IS INNOCENT BY INSANITY
Frances Bowers of Bunnell, on trial last week for the July 6 shooting death of her husband, Jesse Eugene Bowers, was found innocent by reason of insanity last Friday.
The four-woman, eight-man jury deliberated nine hours before presenting the not guilty verdict to Circuit Judge Kim Hammond about 8 p.m.
Mrs. Bowers, who had been held in county jail without bond since the shooting incident, was released Friday.
According to testimony at the trial, Mrs. Bowers became disturbed when she found out that her husband had bought part interest in a $300 fishing boat. Mrs. Bowers left the home of Joe and Delraine Kowalsky on North Anderson Street in Bunnell where she and her husband were attending a fish fry.
She returned to the Kowalsky home, parked her car at the curb in front of the residence and brandished a .22 caliber revolver. Bowers approached a window and was fatally wounded in the chest.
Mrs. Bowers testified that her husband tired to take the gun away from her and the weapon discharged accidentally.
In his closing statements, Mrs. Bowers' attorney, Robert Hurth, theorized that Bowers wrenched the gun from his wife's hand and as he pulled the gun up, it discharged.
Hurth, an attorney from Pompano Beach, called his client, who has a history of drinking problems, "a pathetic sick woman."
Three psychiatrist found Mrs. Bowers sane enough to stand trial but one of the psychiatrists, Dr A D Hampton, testified the woman suffered from organic brain syndrome, a mental disorder, at the time of the shooting.
