EVERETT — Tyler Bam Bowman was back in a Snohomish County courtroom from prison Monday to answer to familiar allegations.
Prosecutors again are accusing Bowman of breaking through the drywall of a business and boosting what isn’t his.
Detectives say Bowman and two accomplices are resp
onsible for hijacking a cash machine from a Marysville auto licensing business in November. The bulky machine, which was bolted to the floor, was found abandoned under a tarp in an Everett park.
Bowman, once believed to be part of the trio of thieves dubbed the “drywall bandits,” beat a burglary rap last year. He, his dad and another man were accused of breaking through the wall of a Lake Stevens market and hauling out a safe in 2009.
Bowman’s dad, Byron Bowman eventually was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he admitted that he committed about 50 similar break-ins between 2008 and 2009. Witnesses told cops that the convicted burglar admitted he’d made a career out of theft. An accomplice, James Densmore was sentenced to 10 years for breaking into Jay’s Market in Lake Stevens with Byron Bowman.
Prosecutors dropped the charge against the younger Bowman in June after they interviewed one of their primary witnesses and determined there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the crime to a jury.
Tyler Bowman, 23, didn’t escape a trip to prison though. He was sentenced in mid-December to two years behind bars for a 2008 car theft.
Detectives believe Bowman was up to no good while waiting to be sentenced.
Prosecutors allege that Bowman and two accomplices, Michael Checkeye and Taylor Jewett hit CLC Auto Licensing in a Marysville strip mall. The suspects gained entry into an adjacent business and knocked a hole through the wall. The first hole was partially behind a refrigerator. Undeterred, the burglars punched a second hole through. Once inside the suspects covered the windows with boards and went to work.
The crooks cut through the back of the ATM to remove the bolts and carried the machine out through the back door, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Sherry King wrote in court papers. Marysville police responded to the business within a few minutes of the alarm sounding. Inside officers found tools, including a pry bar and power grinder. They also found cigarette butts and a dark-colored hat.
That evidence was sent to the state crime lab for forensic testing. The DNA on the hat matches that of Bowman, court papers said. Genetic evidence on a cigarette butt is a match for Checkeye, King wrote.
A witness also provided police with the license plate of a van he saw backed up at an Everett park the day of the heist. The witness followed the van as it drove to Bowman’s house, King wrote. Police talked to the van’s owner who reported that she’d lent the van to Jewett.
Jewett told police she gave Bowman and Checkeye a ride to Marysville. She denied being a part of the break-in. She allegedly told police she saw Bowman and Checkeye load the ATM into the van.
Bowman also is a suspect in another burglary that happened a few days earlier, prosecutors said. It’s unclear if Bowman is a suspect in a string of break-ins from last year. There were five burglaries in Everett in two weeks and another 15 around the county.
The break-ins typically occur at strip malls.
“I’m not aware of similar burglaries in recent months,” Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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