Woman who killed intruder gets 1-2 in drug case

WILKES-BARRE – A Glen Lyon woman was sentenced Tuesday to one to two years in state prison on a drug charge stemming from an incident in which she shot and killed a man in what was later called a justifiable homicide.

Judge Fred Pierantoni sentenced Amanda Rose Bowman, 30, on a charge of criminal conspiracy with intent to deliver stemming from the February 2011 shooting inside a suspected methamphetamine lab that left 44-year-old Robert Muntz dead.

Pierantoni also sentenced Bowman to 12 months of special probation and 25 hours of community service.

Bowman, who pleaded guilty to the charge in April, asked through her attorney, John Pike, that her sentencing be delayed because of new drug charges she faces – she had also been scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday morning.

Bowman was charged last month by Wilkes-Barre police after she was found sitting in a Toyota Corolla on East Lafayette Place with two other people. Police said the vehicle was being used as a mobile meth lab.

She was scheduled Tuesday morning to appear for a preliminary hearing, but that hearing was continued until Oct. 23.

Pierantoni said he would not allow the sentencing to be continued, but did allow Bowman to remain at the county prison, where she is held for lack of $50,000 on the new charges, until her preliminary hearing is complete.

Pike said his client denies the new allegations.

Bowman testified at an August 2011 preliminary hearing that she shot Muntz in the head with a .40-caliber handgun after Muntz and several other burst into her Hunlock Township trailer.

Prosecutors later ruled the shooting justifiable homicide, noting Bowman acted in self-defense.

Police said Bowman shared the trailer with her boyfriend, Jeffrey Layton, and the trailer contained materials used to manufacture meth. A total of nine people where charged with drug-related offenses in that case.

Bowman also is facing additional drug charges stemming from an Aug. 31 arrest in Newport Township. She is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 26 for those charges.