The Mail Tribune in Medford, Ore., called 57-year-old James Bowen “Arguably Southern Oregon’s best-known grower.” He owned a licensed marijuana-growing farm near Wimer, Ore., but had been going through rough times. He was unable to afford security. On Dec. 16, 2016, after he’d fallen asleep at his home on the farm, intruders broke in, tied him up, and brutalized him, demanding where he hid his money.
“For nearly five hours, they took turns beating Bowman, using firewood, a crowbar, their fists,” the Tribune reported. “They burned his naked body with a butane torch until, luckily, it quickly ran out of fuel. They used a drill to burrow into his hip until the battery also quickly went dead.” The assailants referred to each other by Mutant Ninja names, ripped through Bowen’s house looking for cash, dumped video-surveillance equipment in the bathtub, and finally loaded 300 pounds of pot in a rented truck, tied Bowman to a chair and threw cold water on him, and drove off.
It wasn’t a well-planned robbery. “Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for them,” said Jason Penn, the lead detective on the case for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon.
One of the men left his cell phone behind. It would prove key for authorities to start tracking down the assailants, who totaled nine, one of them a juvenile. The truck they fled in soon got stuck in a neighbor’s ditch. They managed to pull it out, but not before the neighbor had taken pictures of the license plate.
All but one had converged from out of state, most from Georgia, where Penn said one of them, Jody Deville Reynolds, ran a gang that called itself “The Enterprise Pimps.”
Over time, Penn’s investigation led to the arrest or location of all but two of them. Four have either pleaded guilty or been found guilty and are serving sentences ranging from three to five years: the assailants were wearing masks, so their defense attorneys have so far been able to avoid convictions on assault charges since it couldn;t be proved who tortured Bowman and who didn’t–and several of them had not.
Three were in jails around the country on other charges. That left two: a 16-year-old Oregon authorities will not pursue because he’s a juvenile, and Reynolds.
This morning, Reynolds was arrested–in Palm Coast’s B-Section.
He was coming out of a house at 74 Boston Lane when, working off of Penn’s investigation, Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies and members of the the U.S. Marshal’s Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force converged on him as he was trying to get on a bicycle. A Flagler County Sheriff’s release said he was staying with his girlfriend there. (The sheriff’s release incorrectly identified the target of the Oregon robbery as a dispensary: The facility, BlueSky Gardens, was not a public dispensary but a marijuana grower, closed to the public.)
Reynolds’s relatively permanent home and base of his “Enterprize Pimps” is in Columbus, Ga., though his operations transcend borders: he had skipped bail in Alabama, where he’d been arrested on drug trafficking charges less than two months after the Oregon robbery, and he had dealings in Philadelphia. “He’s a pretty bad dude,” Penn said.
Reynolds is being held at the Flagler County jail on a slew of Oregon-based charges–Assault in the First Degree, two counts of Robbery in the First Degree, Robbery in the Second Degree, two counts of Assault in the Second Degree, Burglary in the First Degree, Assault in the Third Degree, and Aggravated Theft in the First Degree. He has a $500,000 bond.
“I’m super excited because this has been a lot of work to figure out who it was, to track him down, and to get him into custody,” Penn said. The detective wasn’t certain whether he would be extradited to Oregon just yet: Alabama may want him first.
“This is another great example of teamwork between agencies,” Sheriff Staly said. “This was great work getting a very violent offender off the streets.”
Bowen spent four days in the hospital after the assault. He lost his farm. “He was on his way to being very successful,” Penn said. Oregon legalized recreational marijuana in 2014. The region where the robbery took place is in one of two adjoining counties reputed to have some of the best growing conditions for marijuana in the country. Penn said the 2016 robbery was one of two he’s investigated at marijuana farms, though the only one where violence was involved.
Anonymous says
How do we end up with these people time and time again?
Really says
Another loser taken out. This place is a magnet for the never do well Nice work.
Richard says
Good work guys and Sheriff Staly adds one more scumbag to the Green Roof Inn.
KathieLee4 says
I’m curious does the girlfriend get charged with harboring a fugitive ??? How do they all find this place ??? Why do they all find this place ????
Anonymous says
This used to be a nice place to live …. Then the tourists decided to move in and it went to hell.
PC Citizen says
I saw an Ad on TV when I was up north a few months ago.
It said : ” Palm Coast, the Best Place to Hid Away “
ConstantlyAmazed says
“For nearly five hours, they took turns beating Bowman, using firewood, a crowbar, their fists,” the Tribune reported. “They burned his naked body with a butane torch until, luckily, it quickly ran out of fuel. They used a drill to burrow into his hip until the battery also quickly went dead.”
What a bunch of SAVAGES.
Trailer Bob says
Ironic that pot is a mellowing out weed of peace, yet these scumbags bring violence into the picture. The only way to deal with aholes like this moron is to castrate him.
Good work Sheriffs.
Anonymous says
Can you only imagine the crime that is going to increase when people are able to get the medical pot for free and those on the street can’t and want it? Thank our law makers for their stupidity! Vote incumbents out and put on the ballot the need for a “stupid” test before you can run for public office. If you fail it you can’t run for public office—you just can’t fix stupid.
Concerned Citizen says
I’m sorry but at 16 you are old enough to know you don’t go around robbing and torturing people. That’s part of the problem now. The legal system is giving free passes to these younger people just because of their age and or maybe feeling sorry for them.
If you get caught at a young age doing a serious crime you shouldn’t get a break. The legal system should do it’s job charge you as an adult and max out a sentence. Maybe it will send messages if they do.
And here’s another thought. If local authorities can’t pursue charges then have the feds step in for crossing state lines to commit a crime.
Part of the reason we are seeing more youth involved in serious violent charges is the fact that they are immersed in it. From video games to tv series (take the upcoming Purge for example) it becomes cool to them.
If the authorities would take a more aggressive stance you might just turn some of these juveniles around.
Anonymous says
If that’s not a hate crime then nothing is.
Dave says
Firsy off anonymous, no one will be getting medical pot for free? What are you talking about even? That’s not a thing.
Oh and Concerned Citizen. It must be the music and video games and t.v. ,please let’s get with times people , this system isnt working. You can’t turn criminals into low wage modern day slaves, building and filling private for profit jails and expect our society to be fine with that. We are not blind and we are not stupid. And people will continue to break the laws when the laws aren’t just to begin with.
Female Veteran says
This has to be one of the worst torture situations I have had the unfortunate time reading. We should all salute this poor man Mr. Bowen who had to endure everything he went through and still was STRONG enough to survive and make it out of that. God bless him and his family for all this and then loosing everything due to these animals who have no respect for anyone just for their crimes. Mr. Bowen definitely had God next to him for the blow torch to loose the excelerant and the drill’s battery to die quickly.
I completely agree with Concerned Citizan.. there is NO REASON that just because one was a minor he was not pursued. That’s just giving him a free ticket on a platter to continue to become a greater criminal the older he gets. Then when he’s of legal age they’re going to wonder how there is such a great danger to society out on the loose.
The one thing that makes me laugh all the time with comments on here is, whenever there is any criminal activity found out about in “Beautiful Palm Coast” with all our neatly manicured medians, people start whining about how our city attracts these kind of people and how our city is too “perfect” to even comprehend that these type of people are here.. I’m sorry, but everyone with this mentality really needs to get out of their Little Rock they live under. This happens in ALL cities and ALL over this country. We’re not immune jut because we live in “Beautiful Palm Coast”. Where can I buy one of these perfect Little Rocks that makes you think we’re unreachable??!!