They were both sentenced to life in prison at the age of 17. Storey and Clark were convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1998. But the coroner was not a medical doctor, and an autopsy was never conducted on Bowling. The person claimed to see Clark running out of the Bowling’s home and through the back yard.ĭuring the trial, prosecutors relied on the testimony of a coroner who said he had a “gut feeling” that the gunshot could not have been self-inflicted in the way it might happen if they were really playing Russian roulette. The woman also said Storey and Clark wanted to kill Bowling because he knew too much about a theft the pair had committed.įurthermore, police spoke with a person with hearing and speech impairments who was in a different part of the house during the shooting.

The woman had claimed that she heard Storey and Clark talk about having planned to murder Bowling during a party, months after the shooting had happened. To build their case, police interviewed a woman who lived near the Bowlings’ house. But at the urging of Bowling’s family, police began investigating his death as a murder, which implies much more serious charges. Police had initially charged Storey with manslaughter in connection to Bowling’s death, believing the shooting had been unintentional but still illegal. Photograph: Courtesy Georgia Innocence Project Cain Joshua Storey with loved ones on his release day.

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