COLUMBIA COUNTY, Fla. – A man convicted of second-degree murder in the death of a Columbia County teenager was sentenced this week to life in prison.
John Leonard Bowen Jr. also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and was sentenced to another 23.1 years, which he will serve consecutively.
Recommended Videos
Bowen was found guilty in the September 2023 murder of 18-year-old Coyoete Kathren Cheyenne Turner, whose body was found partially burned in a field near SW Haltiwanger Road, which is not far from Ellisville.
Investigators have never said how she died.
Eleanor Houston, Turner’s mother, said she still doesn’t understand why someone would want to hurt her child, who she described as a caring person.
“Nobody’s child deserves that,” Houston said at the time of the murder. “I shouldn’t be burying my child.”
RELATED: ‘She was a bright little girl’: Columbia County mother mourns death of daughter found in field
Bowen, a registered sex offender, was already being held in the Columbia County Detention Facility on unrelated charges associated with violating his sex offender registration when he was charged with Turner’s murder.
Detectives said Bowen was initially named a person of interest because of witness statements, evidence at the crime scene and “other investigative efforts.”
