Ex-soldier convicted of fatally shooting Georgia officer

LAGRANGE, Ga. – A jury has convicted a former Georgia National Guard sergeant of fatally shooting an off-duty police officer outside a restaurant in Griffin nearly three years ago.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (http://bit.ly/2m2advm ) that Michael Bowman faces a possible death sentence following the Troup County jury’s verdict Thursday in the May 31, 2014, killing of Griffin police officer Kevin Jordan.

Jurors are scheduled to hear testimony Friday for Bowman’s sentencing. He faces a possible sentence of death, life without parole, or life with the possibility of parole.

The jury deliberated for more than three hours before finding Bowman guilty but mentally ill.

Bowman testified that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after three deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he didn’t remember shooting Jordan five times in a Waffle House parking lot after a disturbance inside the restaurant.

“I just remember him (Jordan) telling us to leave, but I don’t remember nothing else,” Bowman testified.

Griffin is in west Georgia’s Spalding County, but Bowman’s trial was moved about 50 miles away to Troup County because of concerns that publicity surrounding the case had jeopardized his right to a fair trial.

Bowman is white. Jordan, who was black, was a 43-year-old father of seven.

Bowman, his girlfriend Chantell Mixon, and his brother Tyler Taylor spent several hours at a bar before going to the Waffle House, but Bowman said he didn’t drink that night.

The three were asked to leave the restaurant when Mixon created a disturbance, demanding to be served. Bowman shot Jordan in the back after the officer walked Mixon out of the Waffle House.

___

This story corrects the spelling to Troup County, not Troop.

___

Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com