Friend of random Seattle murder victim reacts to verdict

"Thank you," friend Annie Jacobsen mouthed to the jurors.

It provided some closure for the tragedy that happened Aug. 31, 2012.

"Seeing the video footage of his face stunned that the verdict spoke to my core (about) how delusional, different, damaged … that person is," Jacobsen said of Bowman.

Noll was driving his red Subaru at the intersection of Northeast 75th Street and 15th Avenue Northeast when Bowman fired five shots through his own passenger window. Four hit Noll in the head.

Police found surveillance footage of Bowman's silver BMW leaving the scene and for two weeks in the late summer of 2012, Seattle was on edge and the search for the killer continued. A break came when police were told Bowman looked like the sketch, and homicide detectives staked out his home, less than a half mile from the murder scene.

In the week after the killing Bowman changed his car tires and had spray painted the wheels. Bowman and his wife drove to Portland the day after he killed Noll to have the window Bowman shot through replaced.

Hours after the murder, Bowman went to Red Robin for dinner and later searched for news stories about his random victim.

But what Noll's friends said they want people to remember is not the sociopathic ways of his killer. He wasn't defined by a crazy person who picked him at random. 

"He's so much bigger. Yancy is so much bigger than that person could ever be," Jacobsen said.

Several of Noll's friends, including Jacobsen and Noll's girlfriend, came only on the trial's first day and the last -- where Bowman was convicted.

During that time, Jacobsen said they were "so disgusted" by Bowman's attorney, John Henry Browne, "and the mockery he makes of the legal system."

"That man is disgusting," Jacobsen said. "Yancy deserves more respect than John Henry Browne gives the judicial system."

The story about Noll's supposed road rage wasn't told until Bowman took the stand in early December. He was well prepared to answer questions from Browne, but tip-toed around questions from the prosecution.

Bowman never directly answered yes or no, and showed no emotion when asked about how he killed Noll with four shots to the head.

After a prosecutor pointed out his lack of emotion, Bowman wept briefly Tuesday after a 15-minute court break and talking with his defense team.

"His story is bunk and it doesn't even meet self-defense," Prosecutor Kristin Richardson said in closing arguments.

Bowman and his attorney claimed that was the motive for shooting Noll, who they claim threw the wine bottle from his own car into Bowman's vehicle, hitting him in the head -- all while driving.

"That's one magic wine bottle," Richardson said Tuesday.

But the jury saw though the story. Bowman's sentencing range is 25 to 31 years in jail.

"I hope he's crying real tears tonight," Jacobsen said.

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