Background: News footage of Government Pier in Marinette, Wis. (WBAY). Inset: Jakob Bowerman (Bowerman Funeral Home).
Months after a Wisconsin teenager with autism drowned after he was allegedly thrown off a pier, prosecutors announced that another teenager will be charged as an adult in connection with the incident.
Jakob Bowerman, 13, died on Aug. 23, days after he was allegedly thrown into a body of water from the Government Pier in Marinette, Wisconsin. Marinette County prosecutors alleged that two others, a 16-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man, grabbed Bowerman by his feet and hands and swung him into the water. Tylor Birch, 21, was arrested and charged with reckless homicide days after Bowerman's death, and prosecutors stated that 16-year-old Peyton Carnot will also face charges as an adult.
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According to a criminal complaint obtained by local Fox affiliate WLUK, both Birch and Carnot told police that on Aug. 20, they and Bowerman jumped into the water off the pier together. When they noticed that Bowerman could not swim, they tried to help him get back to land. Carnot told police that he got out of the water to call 911. The complaint said "while they were in the air, leaping from the break wall is when Bowerman allegedly told them that he could not swim."
But as the investigation progressed, police determined that Birch and Carnot's story was not true. According to the complaint, Carnot eventually told police that he and Birch "had actually thrown the victim into the water after the victim has expressed he didn't want to go in."
Tylor Birch (Marinette County Jail).
The complaint said that after Birch and Carnot threw Bowerman into the water, and after hearing him say that he could not swim, they jumped into the water after him to try to help him, "but they could not." According to prosecutors, the weather on Aug. 20 caused the water to be "choppy. Not good swimming weather at all."
Bowerman was pulled from the water and taken to a hospital, where he died days later. An autopsy determined his cause of death to be drowning.
In an interview with local ABC affiliate WBAY, Bowerman's mother, Taylor Singer, said that her son had just met Carnot and did not know Birch at all.
Birch and Carnot were both arrested shortly after the alleged incident. Birch was charged with second-degree reckless homicide and remains in custody at the Marinette County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court for a competency hearing on Dec. 18.
Carnot was also charged with second-degree reckless homicide and is in custody at Washington County Juvenile Detention. His bond was set at $100,000. He is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 17 for his arraignment.
