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Woman gets 40 years for beating and drowning death
Wednesday, December 19, 2001
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLVILLE -- A Spokane woman has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for her role in the killing of a man she believed had impregnated her younger sister.
Shonda R. Foster, 26, burst into tears Monday when Stevens County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson pronounced the sentence, which is 13 years longer than what her principal accomplice got.
Her brother-in-law, Christopher W. Morlan, 26, was sentenced earlier this year to nearly 27 years for his guilty plea to first-degree murder.
A jury convicted Foster of the same charge last month.
Her sentence was longer than the standard 29-year term because she has a previous conviction for vehicular assault.
Defense attorney John Troberg said he will appeal Foster's conviction and sentence.
Testimony indicated Foster and Morlan believed Neal R. Bowen, 34, was the father of a baby that Morlan's wife, Cori, Foster's younger sister, had this year.
Morlan testified that he beat Bowen on two occasions during the early-morning hours of April 21 when he spotted Bowen walking along streets in east Spokane.
Morlan said it was Foster who tied up Bowen, stuffed a condom in his mouth and pushed him off a 56-foot cliff at Red Lake, near Tum Tum. Bowen tumbled into the lake and drowned.
Foster contended that she acted at Morlan's direction and wasn't responsible for Bowen's death.
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