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A suspected serial rapist got a sweetheart plea deal and spent 483 days behind bars despite accusations of three brutal rapes and violating his bond conditions over 50 times to shop and play golf.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections reviewed 21-year-old Bowen Turner's case Sept. 14 and granted his release, according to prison records. He was released Wednesday.
Turner, the son of an investigator for a local prosecutor, was originally facing criminal sexual conduct charges that carried up to 30 years in prison, but he pleaded guilty to lesser charges of first-degree assault and battery.
He was sentenced to probation in April 2022 under the Youthful Offender Act, which can be offered to offenders under 25 with no previous record, and avoided the sex offender registry.
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Bowen Turner, left, in an older booking photo. Accuser Dallas Stoller died before he went to trial. (Bamburg County Detention Center; Photo courtesy Brette Tabatabai)
Three women accused Turner of rape in 2018 and 2019. The case involving his first alleged victim was dropped, and details were never released because Turner and the girl were under 18.
His second alleged victim, Dallas Stoller, was bullied after coming forward with the accusations and died by suicide at the age of 20. Social media hashtags of #FreeBowen followed her everywhere she went.
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He was released from prison Nov. 15, the same day as Stoller's father's birthday and the day after the two-year mark of her death.
"I think it makes it 1,000 times worse," Dallas’ sister, Brette Tabatabai, told Live 5 WCSC last month. "It’s a really hard time. It’s a time that we’re grieving. It’s a time that brings up that day, that phone call that I got, the time I’m laying on the ground trying to breathe hearing those words that my sister is gone."
Dallas Stoller (Photo provided by Brette Tabatabai )
Tabatabai shared disturbing details of her sister's October 2018 attack in an April interview with FITSNews.
"One of her eyes was completely bloodshot from strangulation," she told the local news outlet, which has covered the troubling South Carolina case since the beginning. "Her neck was completely black and blue from being strangled."
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Turner was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Stoller's alleged rape, but he was released a month later on $100,000 bond.
While out on bond, he allegedly sexually assaulted 16-year-old Chloe Bess, a pastor's daughter, during a house party in June 2019.
Chloe Bess, center left, saw Bowen Turner plead guilty to lesser charges related to her sex assault allegations last month. (Nicole McCune, South Carolina Victim Assistance Network)
Bess told the Murdaugh Murders podcast in an interview in April 2022 she "started to feel uncomfortable" when she saw him.
"My dad's a pastor, and his family attended our church, so he was familiar to me. I remember him coming out, and I was asking my friend to come pick me up or when she was coming back," said Bess, who remembers being pulled into a tree line.
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"There's a truck parked there, and we go behind the truck. The next thing I know I'm on the ground. And he's a lot bigger than me. I only weigh 115 pounds, I'm really tiny. So, there was not much I could do at that moment in time," she said during the emotional interview on the podcast.
"I remember looking at the stars, that was the main point. And I could feel what was happening, I was aware of what was going on, and I was just petrified.
"I wanted to kick and scream, but I couldn't move, I didn't know what to do. I was looking at the stars, and I'm just like, 'OK, I hope it's at least quick, so I can get up and run away.'"
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While waiting for the rape case to go to trial, Turner was ordered to serve house arrest with a 7 p.m. curfew, which he ignored, according to court documents that detailed his movements based on his ankle monitor.
Between Nov. 3, 2021 and Feb. 25, 2022, he played golf 19 times, visited friends, went shopping, went to eat and even left the state, law enforcement said in the documents.
None of the alleged rapes went to trial.
Stoller's case was dropped because she died, and Bess's case was reduced to assault. Turner was sentenced to probation as part of the sweetheart plea deal in April 2022.
Stoller's sister told Fox News Digital in May 2022 the prosecutor "dropped Dallas’ case because they said that she was not here to testify that it was not consensual.
"Even though they had written statements. They had a witness statement. They had physical evidence, everything they need."
Orangeburg County deputies arrested Bowen Turner on disorderly conduct and probation violation charges after he allegedly stumbled drunk into the middle of a road, lied to a deputy and – while being booked into the county jail – allegedly protested the facility’s COVID-19 protocols and told a deputy, "If you try to put that mask on me, I will bite your f---ing finger off." (Orangeburg County Detention Center)
A month after his sentencing in July 2022, Turner was arrested again on minor charges, including disorderly conduct, possession of alcohol by a minor and threatening a public employee.
While being booked in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, jail, he allegedly fought the facility's COVID protocols and told a deputy, "If you try to put that mask on me, I will bite your f---ing finger off."
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That's when he was finally thrown in prison. He spent 16 months in Turbeville Correctional Institution.
"The Bowen Turner case demonstrates, yet again, how the criminal legal system can fail victims and survivors of sexual assault," Sara Barber, the executive director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said in a May 2022 statement.
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Turner will be required to complete a year of community service and meet with an intensive supervision officer every week to ensure he’s abiding by the conditions of his release, Fox Carolina reported.
Turner is under intensive supervision in Orangeburg County, according to prison records reviewed by the local news outlet.
