Mill Run man’s sex abuse sentence reduced from life to 25-to-50 years
A Mill Run man had his life sentence for sexually abusing a small child reduced in Fayette County Court, but will likely be locked up for the rest of his life anyway.
In 2012, Richard Glenn Bowers, 73, was convicted of indecent assault of a person under the age of 13 and Senior Judge Gerald R. Solomon, then president judge, handed down a mandatory term of life imprisonment.
Last week, that sentence was reduced to 25 to 50 years, with no eligibility for early parole.
Solomon initially imposed the mandatory life sentence based on a “three strikes” rule, citing prior criminal convictions from 1985, when Bowers pleaded guilty to raping three girls, ages 8, 12 and 13, on multiple occasions. He pleaded guilty at a single hearing and received concurrent 4-to-10-year sentences.
The state Superior Court determined that although there were three victims and three sets of charges, the case counted as only one strike, because they were dealt with together in a single plea hearing. The judges overturned the sentence and remanded the case to Fayette County for resentencing without the mandatory term.
In 2009, the victim in the current case, who was then 10 years old, told police that beginning when she was 3 years old, Bowers would engage in sexual activity with her when the two were alone in the woods or in his garage.
The Herald-Standard does not identify victims of sexual crimes.