Attempted murder trial resumes

Nov. 1—Both the state and defense attorneys presented their evidence Wednesday afternoon in the trial of Rodney Howle, charged with the attempted murder of his neighbor during a dispute. Court resumes with closing arguments Thursday morning.

In January of 2021, Howle, 53, was charged with the crime after Benny Rowell, 60, had been shot in the face with a .25 caliber pistol during an altercation at a mobile home in the Wellington community of Calhoun County.

During that altercation, Rowell, 60, reportedly was striking Howle with his cane prior to Howle pointing the gun at him. Howle has maintained since the date of the incident that the gun "went off" during the altercation, and that he only pointed the weapon at Rowell as a "scare tactic" to try to get him to stop striking him.

Defense attorney Michael Askew began the day with a cross examination of the state's witness, Rowell. During the cross examination, Askew impeached the witness — called his credibility into question — several times when Rowell denied that he had said certain things; however, when Askew presented transcripts of prior court proceedings, he recanted.

For example, Rowell said Wednesday that he had testified during the preliminary hearing in 2021 that Howle had asked him to do drugs with him on the date in question. However when presented with the transcripts, Rowell walked those statements back.

He also testified on Tuesday that he did not strike Howle with the cane until the man had put a pistol in his face for the third time. But on the date in question, the body cam footage showed him telling officers something different.

"When the officers asked you what happened, that's not what you told them," Askew said.

Askew asked Rowell why — if Howle did indeed point the gun at him several times before he struck him with his cane — he didn't call the police the first couple of times Howle did that.

"When a man puts a gun in your face, you don't know what to do," Rowell said.

Askew asked if Rowell was aware that Howle also called 911 to report the incident.

Rowell answered with a non-humorous laugh, "Yeah."

The state next called the surgeon who treated the injured Rowell, Dr. Johnathan Black of UAB Hospital in Birmingham.

Black testified that gunshot wounds to the face "can be dicey" because it can impair the patient's breathing to where they are essentially drowning in their own blood. In an attempt to oxygenate Rowell, Black said the team tried to put a breathing tube down his throat. However, whenever given the sedative in order to perform that procedure, Rowell "coded," or his heart stopped, and they had to perform an emergency tracheotomy.

Rowell also tested positive for COVID-19 while in the hospital, further complicating his lengthy recovery.

Hearing such statements by the surgeon visibly upset Rowell, as the man sat in the audience wiping tears from his face.

Even with the tracheotomy, doctors had trouble oxygenating Rowell. Black said doctors performed a bronchoscopy, which is a procedure where a camera is placed down the airway into the lungs to look around. There, doctors found lots of blood in his lungs, where he had aspirated blood coming from his mouth and face.

Black said during his recovery, Rowell developed pneumonia, and the medical team had difficulty getting him to breathe for himself. Rowell was in ICU for around three weeks where he remained in an unstable condition. Rowell said that it was hard to say how much of that recovery time was from being shot, and how much was from the COVID-19 infection.

Assistant District Attorney Alan Dees called several other witnesses, including a neighbor, Kenneth Floyd, who stated that Howle asked him to get rid of the weapon after the shooting occurred.

"He said, 'take this gun and get rid of it,'" Floyd told the court, referring to Howle.

Floyd said he told Howle that it was his gun, and asked him why he needed him to get rid of it.

"He said, 'I shot Benny,'" Floyd said.

The defense

The state rested its case just after 2 p.m. Wednesday, at which point the defense called its first witness.

Askew's first witness, Tonya Brown, told the court that she had been friends with Howle for a long time and that the day after the incident occurred, she had taken Howle home where she noticed bruising all over his body. Brown said the bruises ostensibly came from the cane strikes.

Brown took photos of those bruises, and said that Howle "was in a lot of pain." Those photographs were presented to the jury.

During Dees' cross examination of Brown, he asked the witness if she was there during the altercation. She said she was not, to which Dees responded that she could not be sure that strikes by a cane were where he had gotten the bruises she saw. Dees speculated that Howle could have also gotten the bruises during the night he spent in jail or during the arrest when officers tackled him to the ground.

Howle takes the stand

Askew's last witness of the day was Howle himself. Calhoun County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Burgess advised Howle of his rights and stated that once he takes the stand, he cannot plead the Fifth if he does not like the line of questioning that the state presents. Howle said that he only wants to tell the truth.

Howle gave the court his recollection of that day's events by stating that the older man had requested that he come over to his house to read a text for him from his ex-wife. While at his house, Howle said he witnessed Rowell smoking meth, and that the man was high.

He said at some point during his visit, the ex-wife called Rowell, and it upset him. Howle said he voiced his opinion on the argument between the two and this enraged Rowell.

He said Rowell began to hit him with the cane, which "hurt gruesomely." Howle testified that the bruising came from the cane strikes.

Askew asked Howle if he had done anything physical to Rowell prior to him hitting Howle with the cane. He said, "No, absolutely not."

Howle testified that he was afraid Rowell was going to kill him. He said he kept trying to get him to stop hitting him, all the while "trying to get him to come back to reality," because he was so high.

Howle said the man "went ballistic," and that his eyes had lost all color.

"I'll never forget. His eyes were completely black," Howle said.

Howle said at this point, his head was ringing and he couldn't think straight.

"That's when I knew if I didn't put a stop to this I was afraid I wasn't going to get out of there. I was afraid he was going to kill me," Howle said.

As a "complete scare tactic," hoping to dissuade him from carrying on with his rage, Howle said he pulled out the .25 caliber pistol and told Rowell that if he didn't stop he would shoot him "in his toe," or something.

Howle said the gun went off and he wasn't even sure at first that Rowell had been shot. It was only evident by a small dot on his cheek and a bit of blood in his beard.

Howle told Askew that after "the gun went off," he offered to take Rowell to the hospital. He said he also offered to call 911. But Rowell told him to get out of his house and began hitting him again until he was "out of the house."

During Dees' cross examination, he asked Howle why he didn't just retreat as the man rained down the blows. He said that if he was able to walk out of the house when Rowell was hitting him after he shot him, why didn't he leave during the first onslaught of strikes?

"My head was ringing like a bell. I couldn't think clearly. At the time, my survival instinct had kicked in," Howle told Dees.

Howle said that he couldn't get his brain to formulate a coherent thought while being beaten by a man who was on hallucinogenic drugs. Howle said that his thought at the time was only to get Rowell to stop hitting him.

Dees asked Howle if he felt like he was the victim in this situation, and Howle said that he didn't know how to judge that. However, Howle said he has definitely suffered the most.

Dees seemed perplexed by this statement, as he asked again if he felt like he suffered more than Rowell. Howle responded by saying he had lost everything because of this incident.

"I've thought about this every day since this happened," Howle said.

"Because of an accident that happened because of his actions," he continued.

"But you intentionally put that gun in his face," Dees said to Howle.

"I didn't know what else to do," Howle responded.

Dees questioned Howle on the statement that it was an accident, if his basis of defense was that it was self-defense. He asked Howle if he had "accidentally self-defended himself."

Howle responded saying that the gun went off accidentally and that he presented the weapon as a defense tactic.

Once the cross examination was complete and the redirects of the redirects were all done and over, the defense rested its case and the jury was let go for the day. Thursday morning, each side will give its closing arguments and the jury will be charged with its instructions prior to going into deliberation.

Staff Writer Ashley Morrison: 256-236-1551. On Twitter: @AshMorrison1105.