EATONTON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia inmate charged with the slayings of two guards “opened the gates of hell” by executing a violent escape from a prison bus that left both officers dead, a prosecutor told a trial jury during closing arguments Thursday.
A defense attorney for Donnie Rowe told jurors there’s no question he committed serious crimes. Still, he argued that prosecutors failed to prove that Rowe intended for either of the guards to die, urging jurors to acquit him on malice murder charges.
Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue were transporting prisoners by bus in June 2017 when Rowe opened an unlocked security gate separating the guards from the inmates. Fellow inmate Ricky Dubose followed Rowe through the gate. Rowe used the chains of his shackles to strike Monica, who had fallen asleep, while Dubose grabbed a gun from a weapons box and fired seven shots that killed the officers.
The fugitive inmates were arrested in Tennessee days later.
Security cameras on the bus recorded the bloody escape southeast of Atlanta. Rowe’s defense attorneys hoped to spare him a possible death sentence by arguing Rowe didn’t know Dubose would kill the guards and should not be convicted of malice murder.
“Donnie Rowe didn’t shoot, Donnie Rowe did not kill,” defense attorney Adam Levine told jurors in his closing argument. “Donnie Rowe did not intend to kill. Donnie Rowe is not guilty of malice murder.”
District Attorney Wright Barksdale argued that Rowe had been “the key that opened the gates of hell” by hatching the escape plot, WGXA-TV reported.
“It was a calculated crime that took both of them to complete,” Barksdale said.
The trial wrapped up in four days. In addition to the security video, jurors got a firsthand look in the courthouse parking lot of the bus where the slayings occurred. They also heard from more than witnesses, from the man whose car the inmates stole right after fleeing the bus to a homeowner in Rutherford County, Tennessee, who grabbed a pistol and called 911 after seeing Rowe and Dubose walking toward his house. He testified that the exhausted fugitives laid down and surrendered.
Rowe did not testify. His defense attorneys played the jury audio and video of Dubose saying he was the one who shot both officers. Then the defense lawyers rested their case.
If Rowe is convicted of murder, his trial will enter a penalty phase in which the jury will have to decide whether his crime warrants a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty.
Dubose will be tried separately for murder and other crimes.
Various news outlets reported that jury began deliberations Thursday afternoon.
The Associated Press
