Lode teen sentenced again in sister’s death

SAN ANDREAS — Teenager Isiah Fowler’s year began with a successful appeal overturning his initial conviction for the gruesome killing in 2013 of his sister, Leila, when he was 12 and she was 8.

But the news has worsened ever since.

One month ago, Judge Susan Harlan, presiding over Fowler’s retrial, reached the same conclusion of guilt as Judge Thomas Smith, who oversaw Fowler’s first trial.

Tuesday, at a sentencing hearing, Fowler’s situation became even more complicated.

At the time of Fowler’s first conviction as a minor being tried as an adult, state law required he be released on his 23rd birthday. But on July 1 the law changed, and Fowler now faces the prospect of being incarcerated until he is 25.

“He’d have been better off if we’d never done (the appeal),” his stepmother, Crystal Fowler, said following Tuesday’s hearing.

For his part, defense attorney Mark Reichel said he plans to file a second appeal on Isiah Fowler’s behalf.

But first, Fowler will return to court one more time, on Aug. 2, when Reichel and Calaveras County prosecutor Dana Pfeil will argue before the judge whether Fowler should be released at 23 or at 25.

Harlan found Fowler guilty on June 27, just before the new law took effect. Tuesday afternoon, Humphreys University Law School Dean Patrick Piggott said Fowler’s release should be based on the law as it stood before July 1.

“The day he’s found guilty should be the guideline,” Piggott said. “The day he was found guilty, the punishment for that crime is the punishment in effect that day.”

Isiah Fowler was 12 years old when he allegedly stabbed Leila more than 20 times on April 27, 2013, while the rest of the family was away from their Valley Springs home. He has always maintained his sister was killed by an unknown intruder.

Family members hold fast to the fact that Isiah Fowler never admitted to the crime, even when he stood to benefit from confessing to killing Leila.

“They offered him a plea deal and he refused it,” Crystal Fowler said.

Barney Fowler, Isiah’s father, said, “He refuses to admit to it because he didn’t do it.”

In the courtroom Tuesday, the judge directly addressed Isiah Fowler.

“The big question for the court is, ‘Who is Isiah Fowler?’ “Harlan asked. “‘Who is he?’ You’re going to get some time to think about that and I hope you do.

“It takes courage to face the bad in life before goodness can flow through. Isiah is a beautiful name. You have the ability to make a beautiful life and I hope you do.”

Harlan reiterated her certainty that Fowler is guilty.

“There’s no doubt you took the life of your sister,” Harlan said. “You did so viciously and used thought and planning. The victim was 8 years old and would have expected her big brother to protect her and not take her life.”

Whether Fowler is released at 23 or 25, Harlan technically sentenced him to 16 years to life in prison, with the early release allowed because of his age at the time of the crime. Fowler already is credited with 1,900 days served. His first appeal succeeded because the court determined that certain statements should not have been admitted in the first trial.

Reichel said in the second appeal he will seek the help of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal organization that works to exonerate wrongfully convicted people through the use of DNA testing. The attorney said “insufficiency of the evidence” will be a major factor in the second appeal.