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Term in Wilkes slaying is life
Ashe jury convicts man of shooting friend 45 times
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Published: November 15, 2008
JEFFERSON - After deliberating for 18 minutes yesterday, an Ashe County jury convicted a man of first-degree murder in the death of his best friend, whom he shot 45 times.
Freddie McDowell Jr., 24, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in a special session of Ashe Superior Court.
McDowell was convicted of killing Drew Lee Howell, 19, on June 29, 2006, at a vacation home in the mountains of Wilkes County. The trial was moved to Ashe because of the publicity that followed two earlier attempts to try it in Wilkes.
McDowell testified that Howell had pointed a shotgun at him, and McDowell said he fired in self-defense. The defense said that McDowell suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of childhood abuse.
McDowell said he remembers firing two or three shots but doesn't remember what happened after that. He had testified that he and Howell were best friends. He said they were spending a week at the vacation home when Howell was shot. Prosecutors said that McDowell reloaded the five-shot .38-caliber revolver until he had shot Howell 45 times. A firearms expert showed jurors how that would have taken at least two to three minutes.
McDowell dragged the body to the woods and then called his girlfriend's family, who alerted authorities. McDowell led investigators to the body the morning after the killing.
Prosecutors did not present a theory as to why the crime happened, but they alluded to a motive in closing arguments yesterday by reminding jurors how McDowell was suspected of tricking a psychotic patient into drinking urine while in Dorothea Dix state psychiatric hospital in Raleigh.
"That man sitting there had given a psychotic individual a cup of urine to drink -- a cup of urine to drink," Assistant District Attorney John Sherrill said. "The most helpless person in the world, a psychotic individual who's not aware of reality.
"They want to know the motive in this case," Sherrill said. "He's mean, that's what it is, and he's quick to temper. Those shots were out of anger; they weren't out of fear."
The three-week trial involved more than 300 pieces of evidence, including bullets recovered from Howell's body.
Mental-health experts for the two sides differed both on whether McDowell has post-traumatic stress disorder and on whether he suffers from mental problems stemming from a beating on the head when he was a teenager.
The speed of the jury's verdict surprised law-enforcement agents and family members.
Howell's mother, aunt, uncle and girlfriend came running up the courthouse steps as court officials scrambled to find the attorneys. McDowell's parents, who had been at the trial, didn't get to the courtroom in time for the verdict. Deputies lined up across the front of the spectator gallery, and the sheriff of Ashe County, James Williams, stood at the back of the courtroom as the verdict was announced.
Howell's mother, Debbie Howell, was shaking, and leaned against her sister.
McDowell, dressed in a coat and tie, stood as the verdict was read and didn't show any emotion.
Because it was not a death- penalty case, the only other sentence in North Carolina for first-degree murder is life without parole. McDowell's mother arrived in court in time to see Judge Ed Gregory sentence her son.
Defense Attorney Jay Vannoy entered a notice of appeal.
When the judge announced that the case was over, Howell's family stood, crying and hugging each other.
Later, Cindy Howell, who lives in Michigan and had spent the last three weeks in a hotel near the courthouse, said that the prosecutors did a wonderful job. "Everybody was so kind and compassionate to us during the trial," she said.
She said that her nephew was a likeable, funny person who was a peacemaker.
"Anytime, there was a fight or disagreement, Drew was always the one who said, ‘Hey guys, let's calm down.'"
He and McDowell were friends from high school in Hope Mills, near Fayetteville. Howell had graduated from high school the year before he was killed, and he was working at a drugstore while he was deciding whether to go into the Air Force or start college.
The day after his funeral, his family found an essay that he had written for his senior English class.
"I also have a lot to live for," he wrote. "A lot of learning and growing I still have to do. I hope one day I can look back on this and say, ‘I lived my life just like I thought I would.'"
His aunt read the words aloud, starting to cry.
"And he never got a chance," she said. "Thank God that justice prevailed."
■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.
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