Houston Chronicle

Montgomery County man gets 30 years for torturing wife

- By Jose R. Gonzalez STAFF WRITER

For three days, Philip Edward Bowers beat and tortured his wife in their New Caney home while their three children were present, authoritie­s said.

Evidence showed that Bowers beat her with his hands, feet, steel-toed boots, a flashlight, a box cutter and a vinyl jump rope, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

“This is absolutely the worst assault I have investigat­ed with a surviving victim in my career,” Detective Brandon Bartoskewi­tz of the county sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Last week, state District Judge Lisa Michalk sentenced the 34-year- old Bowers to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated kidnapping causing serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon, family violence, and aggravated kidnapping.

Assistant District Attorney Echo Hutson said their office has seen murder victims with fewer injuries than what the woman sustained from her beating by Bowers.

“The things that happened in that house are the things of which horror movies are made,” Hutson said in a statement.

The victim in the case was found alone March 29, 2019, severely beaten in a back bed

room of a home.

Montgomery County paramedics transporte­d her to Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center.

People reported seeing Bowers and the children leave the home shortly before the arrival of EMTs.

He was found at a nearby convenienc­e store and taken into custody, according to the DA’s office.

Physicians also found evidence of previous beatings requiring medical attention.

Following two weeks of multiple reconstruc­tive surgeries and life-saving treatment, the woman was released from the hospital into the care of family members, the DA’s office said.

Hutson thanked the children who witnessed the abuse and spoke up about it.

“We are grateful for their strength and for the heroic work of all the community partners in this case,” she said in a statement.

District Attorney Brett Ligon praised Bartoskewi­tz’s detective work on the case.

Bowers’ “conduct is reprehensi­ble, unconscion­able and has no place in our community,” Ligon said in a statement. “Now thanks to the work of Det. Bartoskewi­tz and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Bowers won’t be part of our community for a very long time.”

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