West Side man pleads in fatal shooting
A Columbus man charged with murder last year for a fatal shooting on the Hilltop has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of negligent homicide after video of the incident showed that he fired after the victim brandished what looked like a handgun at him.
Robert C. Bowles, 34, of the West Side, was sentenced Monday by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch to the 180 days he had already served in jail.
Bowles was arrested less than a week after the shooting, in which 39-year-old Dale Kendig was killed in an alley between two homes on the 300 block of South Eureka Avenue around 6 a.m. June 7, 2020.
At the time of the arrest, Columbus police reported that video from houses in the neighborhood showed Kendig, a resident of the South Side, walking into the alley from South Eureka toward a white truck driven by Bowles that had stopped in the alley. The video, according to a summary document filed by a homicide detective, showed Bowles get out of the truck and fire a handgun at
Kendig, killing him.
During Monday’s hearing, Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Scott Kirschman said that a subsequent review of the video by the prosecutor’s office showed that Kendig was holding what appeared to be a handgun and was pointing it at Bowles when Bowles fired.
Kendig’s weapon turned out to be a BB gun designed to look like a real gun, Kirschman said.
Kendig was pronounced dead at the scene by Columbus Fire Division medics. jfutty@dispatch.com @johnfutty