Another Greene County murder case is heading to trial. 30 year old Adam J Gowin, formerly of Rockbridge, appeared in Greene County the morning of July 10th for a pre-trial hearing. Greene County Public Defender Tom Piper filed a motion for examination in the case.
Gowin has been charged with 6 counts of 1st Degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his two uncles, 55 year old Ronald Plummer and 54 year old Billy Plummer of Rockbridge on the night of September 8th, 2018. Gowin fled the scene and was later apprehended early in the morning the next day in Gillespie.
Each count alleges a different legal theory as to how the offense of murder was committed, but all charges would seek to prove there were physical actions committed by Gowin in the deaths of the two men.
Gowin could face 20 to 60 years in prison for each count if found guilty along with 3 years of mandatory supervised release. Greene County States Attorney Caleb Briscoe says that COVID-19 has pushed back a resolution to the case and caused some difficulty in setting a jury: “We had hoped to have these cases resolved, but we’ve lost the April jury setting with the COVID [pandemic]. Things kept happening and got pushed back. We’re looking to resolve [the Gowin case] soon. We have a special jury setting in August. We have talked to [Judge James Day]. The jury is really set for a civil case, but we’ve talked to the judge about it being case #2 – maybe we’ll do the civil case and then do the murder case the next week and use the same jury pool. If for some reason that civil case were to be settled or resolved somehow, we’d be able to move the murder case to case #1 with that jury. We will still work towards resolving [Gowin’s case] sooner rather than later.”
Gowin’s next appearance in court will be on status of the examination motion on August 12th.