PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "Sarah Mullinix, Leah’s sister and Dante’s aunt, never believed Bowie was guilty. She testified in the trial—although she had to return home four hours away and was not present for the verdict. Still, she was happy and relieved to hear Bowie was acquitted. “I think Tyree was trying to help my sister and Dante,” Sarah said. “Now they need to go after the ones who were abusing my nephew.” Her nephew died covered in bruises, partially healed wounds and a sexually transmitted disease that Bowie didn’t have. “I love my little sister, but I’m not stupid,” Sarah said. “She was with Dante 24/7 and she knows who did [expletive] to Dante.” Mullinix, Peiffer and others who commented on social media railed against the York city police and York County District Attorney’s office, who put the case together against Bowie. Sarah said she wants justice for Dante—That includes accountability for her sister, Children and Youth, the York County District Attorney’s Office and the York City Police Department."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE FOUR OF THE DAY: "Friends and family also cheered for Farley Holt, the lawyer who represented Bowie throughout the trial. As they gathered outside the York County Prison Friday afternoon in anticipation of Bowie’s release, they cheered things like “Holt for President!” and celebrated him as a compassionate man. Holt, who cried tears of joy as Bowie was acquitted, said, “Finally, after all this time, justice is starting to be done for Dante."
--------------------------------------------------------------
GIST: "Friends and family believed Tyree Bowie was innocent of the murder charges he faced during a four-week trial in York County.
But would the jury see it that way? They awoke Friday not knowing what was going to happen when jurors started deliberating.
Two hours later, they got their answer: Not guilty on all counts. The 43-year-old man was released from jail, where he’s spent the past four years, at 6 p.m. Friday.
“When I woke up, I was mixed with emotions,” Cheryl Preston, Bowie’s mother, said. “I knew these were serious charges. But at the same time, my son didn’t do this.”
A York County jury determined Bowie had been falsely accused of murdering two-year-old Dante Mullinix, the boy Bowie brought unconscious to the York Hospital the night of Sept. 6, 2018.
Bowie maintained his innocence throughout the entire investigation and trial, saying he tried to save the boy’s life by calling Childline to report suspected abuse and neglect by his mother and her boyfriends, and later trying to resuscitate him when he fell permanently unconscious in his car the night of Sept. 6.
“They didn’t want to hear the truth,” Bowie testified on the stand at trial.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, claimed he beat and brutalized the boy during a 90-minute period where he watched the boy as a favor to Dante’s mother, Leah Mullinix.
Asked for comment on his way out of court Friday, First Assistant District Attorney Tim Barker said: “Glory to God in the highest. That’s it.”
The trial originally was scheduled for two weeks but took twice that long and included witnesses from his family and social circle, in addition to a slew of others.
One such witness was Laci Peiffer, who allowed Bowie to stay with her at her apartment in September of 2018
“It hasn’t even hit me,” Peiffer said after hearing of the verdict. “I screamed in my car. I just had to let it all out—I’ll probably cry for a month. It’s amazing.”
The past four years have traumatized Peiffer, she said.
The police tried to imply at trial that her apartment was Dante’s murder scene, without investigating the apartment or swabbing it for DNA evidence, she said.
Additionally, she said she’s spent more than $800 on calls to the York County Prison to keep in touch with Bowie.
“Four days before this happened, we were sitting on my couch smoking,” Peiffer said. “He told me ‘I met this chick… I care about this kid. Every time I see him there are new bruises.’”
Because of that conversation, and because of what she knew about Bowie, Peiffer said she knew he was not guilty from the beginning.
“I couldn’t not stick by Tyree, especially because of how I’m involved in it,” Peiffer said.
Peiffer said she’s sure Dante is looking down at Tyree and those involved in the case, now.
After the jury reached its verdict and was released, one juror approached Peiffer and gave her a hug.
“Please give Tyree a hug for all the jurors,” that juror told her. “We know we did the right thing.”
The case had garnered a following on social media that drew interest from people in amateur sleuth groups in other coutries. Many of them commented on social media in support of Bowie before, during and after the trial.
Bowie was trusted with babysitting seven nieces and nephews, according to his mother. And each and every time, he let them have junk food and sit on the kitchen island.
“Really Tyree?” Preston would said.
“They’re not hurt, mom,” Bowie would reply.
“And they were safe,” Preston said. The children loved Bowie, she said.
Sarah Mullinix, Leah’s sister and Dante’s aunt, never believed Bowie was guilty. She testified in the trial—although she had to return home four hours away and was not present for the verdict. Still, she was happy and relieved to hear Bowie was acquitted.
“I think Tyree was trying to help my sister and Dante,” Sarah said. “Now they need to go after the ones who were abusing my nephew.”
Her nephew died covered in bruises, partially healed wounds and a sexually transmitted disease that Bowie didn’t have.
“I love my little sister, but I’m not stupid,” Sarah said. “She was with Dante 24/7 and she knows who did [expletive] to Dante.”
Mullinix, Peiffer and others who commented on social media railed against the York city police and York County District Attorney’s office, who put the case together against Bowie.
Sarah said she wants justice for Dante—That includes accountability for her sister, Children and Youth, the York County District Attorney’s Office and the York City Police Department.
“It is sad when you cannot even trust the criminal justice system,” Sarah said.
All prosecutors would offer as a comment to PennLive after the jury’s decision was: “We respect the jury’s verdict.”
The York County District Attorney’s Office and York City Police Department did not respond to PennLive’s queries over the status of the investigation into Dante’s death.
It is unknown if they intend on closing the case or continuing to investigate to find who hurt Dante.
“I just had to know that God was gonna be in there,” Preston said. “God knows all. God knows who did this to this baby. And God knows my son didn’t do that. That’s all I had to go on.”
Friends and family also cheered for Farley Holt, the lawyer who represented Bowie throughout the trial.
As they gathered outside the York County Prison Friday afternoon in anticipation of Bowie’s release, they cheered things like “Holt for President!” and celebrated him as a compassionate man.
Holt, who cried tears of joy as Bowie was acquitted, said, “Finally, after all this time, justice is starting to be done for Dante.""
The entire story ca be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resurce. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
——————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
------------------------------
