By SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staff writer
Several gasps of relief filled the courtroom as the man who killed Jacksonville Fire Capt. Donald (Donnie) Jones and seriously wounded two other first responders received the maximum sentence for lesser charges than prosecutors wanted him convicted of.
The sentence was handed down after wives of the three victims testified about how their lives will never be the same because of the 2012 crash. A defense attorney then read a statement written by the murderer’s mother, and a social worker told the jury that he had been compliant while committed to the State Hospital, where he has been since August 2012.
Bryce Allen Jr., 49, of Jacksonville could spend the next 70 years in prison – 30 for second-degree murder and 40 for two counts of attempt to commit murder in the second degree. He may be eligible for parole in 17 1/2 years for good behavior, but will return to the Arkansas State Hospital and a court-supervised release program if he ever leaves the hospital.
Allen was charged with first-degree murder, which carried a possible life sentence.
After three hours of deliberation, Pulaski County jurors agreed Allen knew what he was doing when he ran over Jones, firefighter Jason Bowmaster and police officer Daniel DiMatteo as they were working the scene of his mother’s accident at 8411 S. Hwy. 161 in March 2012. She hit a gas main but wasn’t injured.
The second-degree murder charge means he ran them over with “with extreme indifference to the value of human life” but didn’t intentionally kill Jones and injure the others, prosecutors said in their closing statements.
Jurors also rejected the defense attorneys’ claim that Allen, who has bipolar disorder with psychotic features, was having a manic episode during the murder and therefore not responsible for his actions. Judge Barry Sims, who presided over the three-day trial, ruled in July that Allen was mentally fit to stand trial.
Testimony from the victims’ wives did what the closing arguments and evidence did not. Their words caused four women on the jury to weep.
Allen did not visibly react during the trial. He paid attention but sometimes looked down at his lap.
The voice of Betty Jones, the captain’s widow, cracked on the stand and tears flowed while she told the room “nothing is the same anymore” and never will be.
Her husband, a father of five, was a 31-year-veteran of the department and the first Jacksonville firefighter to be killed in the line of duty.
Ashley Bowmaster, the other firefighter’s wife of 11 years, said they have a 9-year-old daughter. She wept during her testimony.
When the chief and a captain came to her door the night of the murder, Bowmaster said, “I kept thinking this has got to be a dream. This couldn’t be real.”
She remembered collapsing at the hospital when she saw an officer holding his bloody wedding band.
“My husband was covered in blood and dirt…I kissed him goodbye and told him to fight. I said, ‘If not for me, then for our daughter,’” Bowmaster continued.
But the horror continues for the family, she said. “He’s medically retired from the one job that he loved” and attends counseling weekly for severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jason Bowmaster can’t remember that night, or even the month of the murder. And that is tragic because “he wants to remember the last conversation he had with Donnie,” Ashley Bowmaster said.
Karen DiMatteo, the police officer’s wife and a police officer in her own right, said they have 10 children and have been married since 2011.
She explained that the two of them loved to run together, go hiking and do a lot of physical activities. Now they can’t do those things together because Daniel DiMatteo will have chronic pain for the rest of his life. That can’t be cured, according to nine doctors.
DiMatteo said, when she saw her husband in the hospital, his arm from elbow to wrist looked like it had gone through a “meat grinder.”
“It was the most difficult thing we’ve ever been through,” she said about taking care of Daniel DiMatteo as he was recovering.
Karen DiMatteo said her husband also suffers from severe PTSD and has lost the patience he had before the murder.
He punched a window while she was driving and another car cut them off.
Sometimes she wakes up at night when “his body jerks so violently” from nightmares.
Both survivors require future surgeries. Bowmaster suffers from a limp and a stutter caused by nerve damage.
The verdict brought relief to both men.
“I’m just very relieved that it’s over. It gives us some closure,” DiMatteo said. He was there through the whole trial, had Friday off and will be back to work today.
DiMatteo also took a moment to say thanks for all the support. “Not only from the police department, but from the fire department, the mayor, the entire city — everyone has been very supportive, caring and helpful during this time period.”
Fire Chief Alan Laughy said the violent incident caused suffering on both sides. “You can never really get complete closure, but justice has been served.”
He added, “As firefighters, you put your life on the line each day, but you don’t expect to be murdered.”
The fire chief thanked the prosecutors for being well prepared and presenting a solid case. He also thanked the jurors for their work.
Battalion chief David Jones — not related to the victim — spoke for the Bowmaster and Jones families. He said, “It has been an emotional roller coaster, but the families are pleased that the jury held Bryce Allen responsible for the tragic accident.
But, he said, you can never get complete closure. “We can’t get Capt. Jones back.”
Prosecutor Kim Davis also pleaded for the maximum sentence with the jury of six women and six men — 11 white and one black.
She said, “Bryce Allen has earned nothing but the maximum. He has taken things from good people that can never be brought back.”
The letter written by Allen’s 73-year-old mother, Thelma, and read by defense attorney Cheryl Barnard said Bryce Allen Jr. was remorseful and she was sympathetic toward the Jones’ family. But Thelma Allen asked, in the statement, that the jury be lenient and remember that her son has a severe mental illness.
The main evidence in the case against the killer was a video of the crash recording by the dash-cam on DiMatteo’s patrol car. The video was shown several times throughout the trial.
Jones’ widow and other members of the victims’ families left the courtroom after the impact was shown for the first time. Those who stayed gasped and wept openly.
DiMatteo’s scream, recorded by his body microphone, is deafening in the video.
He said on the stand Wednesday that he was screaming because it was “the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt in my life.”
The first officer on the scene after the men were hit, Sgt. Robert Slash, testified that Allen was calm and didn’t have rapid speech — behavior inconsistent with someone experiencing a manic episode, prosecutors claimed.
Defense attorneys pointed out that he quickly became agitated when a police officer retrieved registration and insurance information from his crashed van. They also implied that he didn’t put his first name on a written statement because he was anxious.
They asked Slash if rubbernecking could cause drivers to swerve in the direction of where they are looking. He said it was possible.
Ryan White, a drug recognition expert, testified next. He said he saw no signs of impairment when he examined Allen through field tests that night.
But defense attorneys drew attention to the fact that White has not been trained to detect signs of mental illness. They also questioned the eyelid tremors, fast movements and increased internal clock noted in White’s report.
Sgt. Tim Carter, an accident reconstructionist for the Arkansas State Police, testified that Allen accelerated to 23.16 miles before hitting the men and braked after the impact.
There were no skid marks on the pavement, indicating he did not brake before striking them, he said. You can hear the van accelerating in the video and see the back bumper go down as weight is shifted there, Carter added. Defense attorneys questioned the fact that a full-blow reconstruction was not completed.
Dr. Frank J. Peretti with the state crime lab said Jones’ autopsy showed he died within seconds of being hit.
An Ohio police officer then testified about how Allen, driving a Cadillac, hit him with the car in October 2011. The officer was off duty and working as a security guard at a hospital in Ohio at the time. He sustained a minor injury when he was pinned between the car’s mirror and a stop sign.
The officer also said, echoing DiMatteo’s earlier testimony, he didn’t doubt Allen was trying to hit him because the car jumped a curve to strike him.
North Little Rock mechanic Freddie Zakrzewski, who has more than 40 years of experience, testified that there was nothing wrong with the 1999 Oldsmobile Silhouette Allen drove. Allen had claimed the accelerator became stuck after he used cruise control.
The mechanic said, on that model, the cruise control doesn’t activate until 25 mph — faster than the 23.16 mph Allen accelerated to.
The defense called on another psychologist to educate the jury on bipolar disorder. He said a manic episode must be at least a week, the person must have four signs of being manic and those signs are less obvious when the person is starting or coming out of an episode.
Defense attorneys claimed his mother calling him to pick her up from the first accident triggered Allen’s episode. She had hit a gas main but wasn’t injured.
Dr. Michael Simon with the State Hospital said Allen’s description of the day before the crash, the murder and his behavior for weeks afterward showed no evidence that he was experiencing a manic episode.
Allen’s mother testified that she prayed for her life to be spared when she swerved to miss a car parked on the road and ploughed into the gas main.
Dr. John Fabian testified that Allen had no rational motive for the murder; his behavior was disorganized, impulsive and reckless. He said Allen was in a manic episode, albeit not a serious one with psychotic elements, when he hit the three men.
Prosecutors pointed out that his report with those claims was written two weeks ago, he was being paid $8,700 for his testimony and the report is riddled with the words “maybe” “probably” and “likely.”
They asked him to identify three behaviors required to show Allen was having a manic episode, and he did not.
Closing arguments followed Fabian’s testimony.
Prosecutors called the murder a “senseless, malicious act.” They argued Allen stayed on the scene because he had the excuse of his accelerator getting stuck.
“The record is simply void of any criteria” for a manic episode, Davis said.
Referring to distraction tactics used by the defense, she told the jury, “Don’t fall for it.”
Of bipolar disorder, she said, “It is not a crutch. It is not a get out of jail free card.”
Defense lawyer Barnard said what happened that night changed four families forever.
She asked the jury that if Allen wasn’t manic, why didn’t he kill the two officers he struck at the scene and why he cooperated with police afterward.
Barnard said an eyewitness, Ronnie Brown, claimed Allen was pacing — one indicator of a manic episode. She reiterated the eyelid tremors, fast movements, increase in his internal clock and increased heart rate.
She also used a glass and bottle with flashing lights to show how Allen, affected by his bipolar disorder, may have seen the accident scene as he approached it.
“It’s not the same reality that everybody sees,” Barnard said.
Martin said it was unbelievable to compare Allen with the victims as if he were a victim too. “They did everything right and the defendant did everything wrong,” she told the jury.
Defense attorneys assured the jury that Allen, if released from the State Hospital, would be enrolled in a court-supervised program. That could still happen if he is eventually paroled. But prosecutors said Allen was in that same program when he killed Jones.
He was enrolled in the program when he was acquitted by reason of mental disease or defect in the 2009 second-degree battery of a police officer.
