FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2011
CONTACT:
ADA Seth Steward, DA Gascón’s Office, (415) 553-1014
Erica Terry Derryck, DA Gascón’s Office, (415) 553-1167
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – District Attorney George Gascón announced today that
Joevan Bowen, (CN 2435626), was convicted by a jury for the murder of
Armando Arce.
After deliberating for less than three days, a jury found defendant Bowen
guilty of murder in violation of California Penal Code Section
187(a). The jury did not reach a verdict on the allegation of a personal
use of a gun causing great bodily injury or death in violation of
California Penal Code Section 12022.53(d).
“This defendant’s malicious and violent actions caused the death of another
human being,” said District Attorney George Gascón. “Diana Garcia’s
efforts should be commended as she put together a difficult case with
reluctant witnesses.”
According to evidence presented at trial, Arce was shot twelve times on February
19, 2003 at about 3:30 a.m. near Willow Alley and Polk Street. The
prosecution relied on two central witnesses in this case. Both were
passengers in the same vehicle the defendant traveled in to the location
where the murder of Mr. Arce was committed.
This case was prosecuted following the prosecution of two of the defendants
in Alameda County, one of whom testified in the Bowen case. Monterrio
Davis, of Oakland, was convicted in Alameda County in 2008 of three
murders, for his role as a lookout in Arce’s murder in San Francisco,
and for the killings of two men in Oakland hours earlier, on Feb.
18. Davis, 25, was later sentenced to life in prison. Alameda County
prosecutors said Davis, Bowen and others had been part of a plan to
start a new branch of the “Nut Cases,” a notorious Oakland street gang
that became weakened in early 2003 when many of its leaders were
arrested. The Feb. 18 and Feb. 19, 2003, murders were considered a test
of their dependability and loyalty.
The maximum statutory penalty defendant Bowen faces is life in prison. The
case is scheduled in Department 23 before Judge Collins on Thursday,
March 17, 2011 to set the sentencing date.
Assistant District Attorney Diana Garcia prosecuted the case.
