BARTOW — A Polk County grand jury indicted 32-year-old Johnny Ray Owsley Jr. on Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge stemming from the shooting death of a Winter Haven man during a Dec. 11 domestic disturbance.
Polk County sheriff’s detectives said Owsley’s former live-in girlfriend had remained at his house at 1101 W. Lake Cannon Drive in Winter Haven that morning after he’d left for work. After texting another man, Patrick Adam Thrower, 35, and asking him to come over, the woman sent a message to Owsley telling him Thrower was at the house.
Owsley arrived at the house about 30 minutes later, detectives stated, demanding that Thrower and the woman leave. Thrower and Owsley left the house at the same time, and the woman told detectives she heard gunshots shortly after they had left. She said she ran from the house and found Thrower in the roadway bleeding and struggling to breathe, according to reports.
The woman ran to a neighbor’s house to call for help, detectives reported, while Owsley left the house in a green Dodge pickup truck.
The woman told authorities she and Owsley had a sporadic relationship that recently had ended. She said she had known him to possess firearms, and he had fired a handgun when he was upset with her for leaving, reports state.
Owsley surrendered to authorities at the Polk County Jail 10 days after the incident, according to Polk County sheriff’s reports.
A witness told detectives that Owsley called him the day of the shooting seeking help with a guy at the house who was causing problems. As the witness was driving to the house, Owsley called back and told him not to come over because he’d already shot the victim, according to Sheriff’s Office reports.
Another witness to the incident told detectives Thrower had called during the altercation asking for someone to pick him up. Thrower was heard saying he wasn’t afraid of Owsley and that he was trying to leave, then the phone went dead, reports state.
A fourth witness told detectives she was southbound on Lake Cannon Drive when she saw someone getting into a green Dodge pickup truck and speeding away. The witness said she saw a man lying in the roadway and stopped to render aid until paramedics arrived.
Thrower had been shot multiple times in the chest and back, reports state. He died two hours later at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center.
Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. Follow her on Twitter @southpolkscene.