Aug.12, 2007
It’s hard to look at the smiling picture of Annette Sowders and not feel that she was horribly and irrevocably let down by a system that should have protected her.
She and her mother were shot to death Saturday, deputies say, by Sowders’ estranged husband, Robert Fuller, after he bailed out of jail for violating his restraining order eight times in 11 days.
The restraining order was officially logged into the system July 21 and Sheriff’s deputies began getting reports from Sowders July 25 that he was slashing her tires and the kiddie pool.
They couldn’t find him the first couple of times, but by July 28, after another set of reports, they caught him and stuck him in jail. He bailed out and went right back to harassing Sowders.
They caught him again and sent him back to jail Aug. 4.
Again, he bailed out.
Sowders and her mother, Sharon Cannon, were shot four days later by someone using a 12-gauge shotgun.
Fuller was arrested a short time later in his truck with a gun.
Here are just some of the questions that need sorting out in the aftermath of this tragedy:
Because of the restraining order, could deputies have searched Fuller’s home and seized all his weapons after his first arrest on July 28? If so, why didn’t they?
We know he either owned, or had access to, at least one gun after he shot himself in the head in April during a weird incident at his trailer park that the Sheriff’s department was called out on.
Did the judge on Aug. 4 have the opportunity to review the full history of this case or was bail automatic? If it was automatic, should it be in cases of domestic violence?
Maybe nothing could have been done to prevent these deaths.
If Fuller indeed shot Sowders and her mother, it was his decision alone and in reading through the remnants of his history, he may have been following a path he chose long ago.
In fact, in one crushing irony of this story, Sowders herself may have been an unwitting accomplice in her own death.
Fuller was married once before in 1995.
Things went bad quickly and he filed for divorce in 1997. After a few reconciliation attempts the marriage was definitely over by 2000.
His wife at the time sought, and was granted, a restraining order against Fuller in June 2000, saying he had hit her and during one drunken rage had waved a 10 mm handgun at her.
In the marriage dissolution order listing who would got what (including the horse that ultimately introduced him to Sowders through her stables), the judge mandated that Fuller couldn’t have his guns for one year. He had to give them all — and he had an arsenal — up to the Sheriff’s department.
That’s where they stayed until he filed the paperwork to retrieve them in early 2001.
That paperwork was filled out for him by Annette Sowders, according to her signature.
On March 5, 2001, Fuller was allowed to collect all of his dozen or so rifles, shotguns and handguns, including his Remington 870 Wingmaster, a 12-gauge shotgun.
Like I said, who knows what, if anything, could have altered this sad course.
But it sure seems like there were a lot of warning signs along the way.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment