Tuesday, February 11, 2025–11:40 a.m.
-John Bailey, Rome News-Tribune-
This story is possible because of a news-sharing agreement with the Rome News-Tribune. More information can be found at northwestgeorgianews.com
A Floyd County man who spent 26 years in prison claims investigators not only fabricated false evidence but also hid exculpatory evidence during a 1996 investigation that led to his wrongful conviction.
Joshua Cain Storey filed an amended complaint last week, alleging that Floyd County police violated his Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights while investigating the Oct. 18, 1996, death of Brian Bowling.
The original complaint against the county and police department was filed in December in U.S. District Court in Rome.
The lawsuit alleges that despite evidence to the contrary, investigators pushed a revenge-murder theory and created evidence to support it.
“The only reasonable conclusion that any trained detective could have arrived at was that the shooting was a tragic accident and no more,” the lawsuit states.
Storey, who was 17, only confessed to police after a lengthy interrogation — with no attorney or parent present — based on promises from investigators that if he admitted to the shooting, they would let him go, the suit states.
The lead investigator, Harry Dallas Battle, was fired from the Floyd County Police Department in 2007 after being accused of rape. Though not indicted, he was later jailed in 2016 for tasing a restrained inmate while working for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. He died in 2021.
The other investigator named in the lawsuit, David Stewart, is currently employed by the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office.
“Battle and Stewart began to fabricate a motive that Brian Bowling’s death was not an accident,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, it was the penalty for snitching on (Storey) and his friend, Darrell Clark, who Battle and Stewart claimed were members of a gang called the Free Birds.”
Battle was reportedly in a sexual relationship with Bowling’s aunt and a key witness but also failed to disclose this to prosecutors.
The lawsuit further claims that Craig Burnes, who was the Floyd County coroner, manufactured evidence suggesting Bowling was shot from a distance, despite lacking medical training. Burnes did not order an autopsy or consult a medical examiner but told the Bowling family the body had been sent to the GBI Crime Lab and charged them $7,000 for an autopsy that never happened.
Burnes was later convicted on more than 30 counts of fraud, racketeering, and theft in 1999 — shortly after testifying against Storey and Clark.
Storey and Clark were convicted in 1998 based on what the lawsuit calls fabricated evidence and corrupt practices.
In 2021, the Proof podcast, hosted by investigative journalists Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis, revisited the case. The Floyd County District Attorney’s Office later reviewed the new findings and dropped murder charges, leading to Storey and Clark’s release.
In 2022, Storey pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter under Georgia’s First Offender Act, which only carries a 10 year maximum term of incarceration.
During that hearing Storey apologized to the Bowling family because he had brought a revolver to Bowling’s home that night and the two played “Russian roulette,” leading to Bowling’s death.
Clark, who was only linked to the alleged crime through coerced testimony from a man with developmental disabilities, is currently seeking compensation through the Georgia General Assembly.
The lawsuit claims systemic failures in county policies led to the violation of Storey’s civil rights.
“Floyd County’s deficiencies with regard to its policies, customs, and practices, including a failure to adequately train its detectives and coroner, was the moving force behind the individual defendants’ constitutional violations,” the lawsuit states.”