On Friday February 14th, 2020, Travis Wayne Bowman was sentenced to serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole by the Honorable Gary Gavenus, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge. The sentence was imposed after a Mitchell County jury made a binding recommendation to the Court that Mr. Bowman receive a life sentence on Friday afternoon. The jury had previously returned guilty verdicts on Wednesday February 12th, 2020 for First Degree Murder, Conspiracy to Commit First Degree Murder, First Degree Kidnapping, and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon after a four-and-a-half-week trial.
The convictions came in connection to the September 2016 murder of Joshua Emmanuel Buchanan. Among the jury’s findings were that Mr. Bowman’s role in the murder was premeditated and deliberate and that the murder involved the torture of the victim by Mr. Bowman.
“By holding Travis Wayne Bowman accountable for his heinous and cruel actions, the verdict in this case has brought a measure of closure for Joshua Buchanan’s family,” District Attorney Seth Banks said in a statement. “I would like to thank the individual members of the jury for their efforts over the last several weeks. The hard work and careful deliberations of the jurors in this case are admirable expressions of their individual commitment to their civic duty. I would also like to thank Chief Deputy Josh Sparks, the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations, the Bartow County, Georgia Sheriff’s Office, and Assistant District Attorney Milton Fletcher for their work in assuring that this case was successfully brought to trial.”
