His case having been transferred to Common Pleas Court just last week, 43-year-old Dwight Darnell Bowen has asked for a speedy trial on a single charge of criminal homicide in the death of his cellmate on January 1st of this year at SCI Pine Grove in White Township.
Bowen is never getting out of prison. He is serving life without parole for the murders of two toddlers who perished in 2001 in the firebombing of a Philadelphia rowhouse. He has an attorney from the Indiana County Public Defender’s Office, but on Monday, Bowen filed on his own behalf a motion requesting a speedy trial.
Bowen is accused of killing 32-year-old Luis Antonio Santiago inside the cell they shared. Santiago’s autopsy established the cause of death as asphyxia due to venous obstruction. Blood evidence found on a cabinet in the cell matched both Santiago and Bowen.
After Santiago’s death, Bowen was transferred to SCI Houtzdale.
