Joshua FowlerA man accused of beating his grandmother to death with a metal pipe pleaded guilty in Walker County Superior Court on Thursday morning.
Joshua Michael Fowler, 32, will go to prison for life with the possibility of parole on charges of aggravated assault and felony murder. He also had faced charges of malice murder as well as armed robbery.
The Georgia Parole Board does not consider letting someone with a life sentence out of prison until he has served 30 years, which would keep Fowler behind bars into his 60s.
"Josh loved his grandmother and is extremely remorseful for what happened," said his attorney, McCracken Poston. "Josh decided to take that plea and end this matter for his family."
Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert "Buzz" Franklin said in a statement that Fowler got into an argument with his 75-year-old grandmother, Joyce Ann Fowler, on March 28, 2014. Joshua wanted money to pay his bills. Joyce said no.
Joshua, who had been released from prison five months earlier on drug possession charges, later told investigators he had taken cocaine and methamphetamine. In his grandmother's bedroom, police said, he lost his temper, grabbing a pipe and beating her in the back of the head.
Sheriff Steve Wilson said neighbors saw Joshua Fowler outside the house the next morning. When he got back to his home, he seemed nervous and kept looking out the window, his wife told the Times Free Press last year.
Investigators with the sheriff's office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found bloodstains on his Chevrolet Tahoe's door, console, steering wheel and seats. Wilson said Fowler confessed after officers arrested him, though he later recanted.
His wife, Amber Fowler, did not return calls seeking comment Thursday. But last year, she didn't believe her husband had a killer's personality.
Sure, he had been troubled, with arrests for having alcohol while younger than 21, using drugs, stealing and committing fraud, but he wasn't violent, she said. And he loved his grandmother, who helped raise him after his parents divorced.
"He lost his way," Amber Fowler said at the time. "He has a good heart. He's a really good person. This is a classic example of what drugs can do to a person. I love him. I will always love him."
In the year before her death, Joyce Fowler worried that somebody was going to kill her, Walker County Sheriff's Office records show. She did not suspect her grandson.
Her husband of 50 years, Robert Fowler, died in December 2012. After that, she called the sheriff's office frequently. She believed someone in her family was trying to get secret information about her staffing company to steal her clients.
In April 2013, she told investigators that FBI spies lurked inside her house. A week after that, she said someone sneaked inside, turned her beds upside down and stole papers from her safe. She said she woke up one night feeling cold before realizing someone had opened the door.
A month after that call, she told police she could hear someone inside the house. In September 2013, she said someone was prowling in her neighborhood. Three months later, she said someone slid into her house through a kitchen window.
In January 2014, she told police someone banged on her door, yelled something, ran back to his car and drove away. A month later, she told police she saw someone running up her stairs. A week later, one month before she died, she complained that her children were threatening her.
From June 2013 through February 2014, her security system went off 18 times. None of her calls to the police led to arrests, and Wilson said they had nothing to do with her death.
"They were all unfounded," he said.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.