Car thief who killed possessor wants fresh trial
File photoRoy Dowds Jr. during his two thousand six trial.
DANVERS — Almost a decade after a judge told Roy Dowds Jr., “You will never be out of prison” — following his conviction in the dragging death of a youthful Boxford man — Dowds and his lawyer yesterday asked that same judge to give him a fresh trial.
Lawyers for Dowds, now 42, say he suffers from lifelong effects of a traumatic brain injury he sustained at the age of Four, when he was hit by a truck, but that his original attorney in his two thousand seven trial failed to explore that as a possible defense in the murder case.
Dowds was convicted in May two thousand seven of first-degree murder, unarmed robbery and larceny of a motor vehicle.
Keith Koster, 20, of Boxford died on May Four, 2006, as he attempted to stop Dowds from stealing his Ford Explorer, which he’d left parked outside the store where he worked — Giblees on Route one hundred fourteen in Danvers.
Dowds, a serial car thief who had recently been released from prison for another car theft in Salem, took off with Koster stringing up from the side of the SUV. He swerved repeatedly, attempting to get Koster off the vehicle, he told police. Dowds eventually crashed into a utility pole, and Koster was thrown from the side of the SUV, sustaining massive trauma.
Dowds later confessed.
But now during a hearing that got underway yesterday in Newburyport Superior Court before Judge Richard Welch III, lawyer David Nathanson, who has filed a maneuverability seeking a fresh trial for Dowds, called a forensic neuropsychiatrist to the stand.
Dr. Montgomery Brower testified that he doesn’t believe Dowds was capable of weighing the consequences of his deeds on the evening of Koster’s death, through a combination of the effects of traumatic brain injury, chronic depression, and intoxication from alcohol and marijuana.
Brower, relying on a two thousand three evaluation of Dowds conducted while he was incarcerated in the earlier car theft from Salem, said he (Brower) learned Dowds spent six weeks in a coma after he was hit by the truck. Then, in 1987, when he was 13, Dowds was hit by a car while railing his bike.
A brain scan taken in two thousand three displayed scarring and atrophy on the frontal lobes of his brain, harm that was also seen on a brain scan taken in 1991.
The injuries, Brower suggested, led to impaired executive functioning, difficulty maintaining concentration, and an inability to engage in abstract thinking. Dowds, said the psychiatrist, demonstrated impairment in language, reasoning and memory. People with these types of injuries to their brain also tend to be impulsive and apathetic, Brower testified.
But, asked Welch, aren’t many of the same issues present in youthful adults whose brains are still developing? And aren’t some of the same symptoms attributed to traumatic brain injury also present in people with antisocial personality disorder?
Brower acknowledged the judge was correct, but that in conjunction with the earlier brain scans displaying harm, he concluded Dowds’ behavior was the result of brain injury.
History of hospitalizations
Dowds, Brower testified, suffered from chronic depression and had been hospitalized in the past.
“In Mr. Dowds’ case, I think he’s always, to some degree, been suffering from depression,” said the psychiatrist.
He also said the roots of that depression may have been physical and sexual manhandle Dowds allegedly experienced as a child, followed by abandonment by his mother and a series of foster homes, where Dowds says he was again manhandled, including having his mitt placed on a hot stove and being hammered with wedges and belts.
Further, Brower suggested, Dowds was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana at the time, part of a pattern of substance manhandle.
It not only impaired his judgment at the time of the crime, Brower opined, but later, during questioning by Danvers and state police. He said he does not believe Dowds had the capability at that time of understanding his rights.
Both the judge and prosecutor James Gubitose, who cross-examined Brower, pointed out there was a significant passage of time inbetween Dowds’ last drink — a 40-ounce bottle of beer he consumed inbetween 11:30 a.m. and two p.m. — and the crime itself — around seven p.m. — followed by another seven hours before he gave an interview with police.
Gubitose also asked Brower whether Dowds’ initial denials to police were consistent with the psychiatrist’s opinion that Dowds had no capability to engage in “self-preservation” because of his brain injuries and depression.
Brower was also asked about part of Dowds’ confession, in which he admitted looking into other vehicles for keys as he walked from his friend’s apartment in Beverly back toward Lawrence, where he lived at the time. That walk would have been about fifteen miles, suggested the prosecutor.
Doesn’t that display an capability to plan out behavior, as opposed to acting solely on impulse, the prosecutor asked.
Brower said he did not believe Dowds had formed such a plan when he left Beverly to walk to Lawrence, but he acknowledged his opinion was based on what Dowds had told him (Brower).
The appeals lawyers are also arguing Dowds should get a fresh trial because, they contend, the courtroom was closed to the public during jury selection. They’re basing that conclusion in part on the lack of newspaper coverage of jury selection in the case.
The hearing will resume today with testimony from Dowds’ original trial attorney, William O’Hare.