February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Patrick Markey
An Irish computer executive who allegedly stabbed his wife to death in their California home went on trial this week in a Santa Clara courtroom, where he faces second-degree murder charges.
Jury selection for the trial of Dublin man Colman Bowers began last Friday and attorneys were due to make opening statements on Wednesday morning, said Terry Bowman, a Santa Clara County attorney who will prosecute the case.
Santa Clara police said Bowers had arrived in the U.S. from Ireland 12 years ago and secured a position as an executive vice president of a Silicon Valley computer company. The family lived in a middle-class neighborhood about 60 miles from San Francisco.
Last year on Feb. 7, Bowers called his two sons on a cellular phone to tell them there had been an accident at the family home. The two boys returned to find their mother’s body in a back bedroom with a single stab wound to the chest, police said. Investigators found blood on the bed, and, inside the bathroom, the eight-inch serrated knife they believe was used in the killing.
"I took a nap with your mother. And when I woke up I killed her. I don’t know what happened," Bowers told his oldest son, Michael, according to police.
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A patrol car responding to an emergency call found Bowers standing outside the house. Police said as they pulled into the driveway, he shouted out, "You’re looking for me."
Police also seized Colman’s computer and downloaded e-mail messages his wife had sent to Ireland, according to Sgt. Anton Morec, a Santa Clara police spokesman. Those messages indicated Georgina Bowers had concerns over her husband’s drinking and over the family’s finances, Sgt. Morec said.
Investigators also looked into Colman’s junkets to casinos in Las Vegas and possibly Reno, Nev., and police said the couple’s domestic arguments had forced Georgina Bowers to consider returning to Ireland.
Bowers’s California attorney did not return several calls seeking comment. The trial is expected to last for about a month.