Welsh citizen faces trial in homicide case
WASHINGTON – A Welsh citizen was ordered to stand trial in Washington County Wednesday following a preliminary hearing in which his teen-age daughter testified against him. Christopher St. John, 48, formerly of Monessen, was arraigned on charges of aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, harassment by physical contact, and disorderly conduct prior to the start of the preliminary hearing. He had previously been arraigned on a single count of homicide. All of the charges are related to the May 24, 2000, death of his wife’s uncle, John Bowman, 57, following a beating on May 23 at a Roscoe restaurant run by the family.
Although the family had a home in Monessen, Christina St. John, the suspect’s 16-year-old daughter, testified that all of the family, including her uncle, stayed overnight at Martonney’s restaurant at 321 Chester Ave., Roscoe, frequently, including the night between her father beating her uncle and her uncle’s death.
Christina St. John testified that her uncle, John Bowman, did cleaning at the restaurant. She said that around 11 p.m. on May 23 she was in the kitchen of the restaurant with her sister and uncle when her parents came in and her father assaulted her uncle.
“My dad was punching him in the throat because he was mopping and he wasn’t fast enough,” Christina St. John testified. “My dad would always beat him up.”
Christina St. John testified that her father struck Bowman in the neck about five times, causing the older man to bleed from the mouth and nose. She said her father also struck Bowman in the head with a rolling pin, screaming “hurry up” at him.
Christina St. John said she slept in a booth at the restaurant that night and that other family members, including her uncle, also slept in the restaurant.
“My uncle was coughing and gurgling,” Christina St. John said.
She testified that her father and uncle went out of the restaurant together for a brief time the day after the beating and when they returned, her father sat her uncle in a booth, where Bowman sat quietly and watched television. She said that mid-afternoon her father approached her uncle and began to choke him, shaking the man’s head back and forth.
“He was yelling that he was going to kill him,” Christina St. John said.
She testified that her uncle then fell face down in the booth and her father called for her mother for assistance, because Bowman was dead.
Bowman was taken to Monongahela Valley Hospital where it was initially believed he had suffered a heart attack until it came to light that the man had been beaten.
Dr. Leon Rozin, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Bowman, testified that the man was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 100 pounds at the time of his death. Rozin said Bowman also suffered from congestive heart failure and had previously suffered from prostate cancer.
“I saw severe trauma of the body on the neck and chest,” Rozin testified.
Rozin said there were numerous bruises and compression of the neck, abrasions on Bowman’s head and face, and severe bruising to the scrotum.
“He died as a result of bronchopneumonia secondary to blunt force trauma to the head and chest. The manner was homicide,” Rozin testified.
Rozin said the vagus nerve was compressed by the bruising to the throat.
“When you have compression of the vagus, you compromise the breathing of a person. These are nerves from the brain to the internal organs. The hemorrhage was causing pressure on the nerves,” Rozin said.
Rozin said Bowman’s injuries were fresh as indicated by the indentation of the abrasions on his face and the lack of scabbing.
Following the hearing, Public Defender Thomas Cooke the hearing raised questions in his mind.
“This case involves a lot of unanswered questions,” Cooke said.
He did not elaborate.
Assistant District Attorney Mike Lucas said the testimony showed the intense brutality suffered by Bowman, who he described as no larger than a middle school child. Lucas said several members of the St. John family will be testifying when the case goes to trial. Christopher St. John and his wife, April, are now divorced.
“These are courageous members of this entire family,” Lucas said.
Christopher St. John fled to Wales following Bowman’s death. He was arrested by British officials and jailed for several years prior to his extradition.
Lucas said that the Washington County District Attorney’s office had to sign an agreement not to seek the death penalty in the case before Christopher St. John could be extradited.
“This actually was a rather controversial case in the UK (United Kingdom), where he fled. At the time that he fled, the UK had passed a Human Rights Act saying they would not extradite to any country where the suspect could face the death penalty,” Lucas said.
In addition to the extradition problems, Christopher St. John’s Welsh attorneys released a statement in 2001 saying he is diabetic and suffers from angina. The release also states that Christopher St. John told his brother in August 2001 that he was being considered for heart by-pass surgery and that he also had a cataract.
Christopher St. John is now being held at the Washington County Jail without bond.