ROCKVILLE, Md. — A Maryland man who was convicted of raping his sleeping neighbor at knifepoint has been sentenced to life in prison, plus 20 years, for the 2015 home invasion and sexual assault.
In September, a jury convicted Myles Bowersox, now 25, of multiple sexual offense counts and a count of home invasion in the November 2015 attack. The victim was a 63-year-old woman who lived in his Rockville apartment complex just off Twinbrook Parkway, and who suffered from schizoaffective disorder.
After fighting with his girlfriend, Bowersox entered the woman’s bedroom through a window in the early-morning hours, forced sex acts on her and, while holding a knife to her, said he would kill her if she told anyone, according to court documents.
Based on monitored phone calls that Bowersox made from jail, prosecutors believe that he mistook the woman’s mental disorder for dementia.
One of the reasons the woman was targeted, said Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, is that “he thought he could get away with it because of the mental condition he observed.”
Speaking to reporters after the sentencing McCarthy called the attack “probably every woman’s worst nightmare.”
In court, the victim’s brother had asked the judge to hand down a lengthy sentence. “This crime has made her more anxious and has made her afraid to even go outside,” he said.
Bowersox was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years for the attack.
Police found Bowersox’s fingerprints at the scene and were able to identify him as a suspect from a previous burglary conviction, for which he was on probation at the time of the attack.
Prosecutors also said Bowersox had been kicked out of the Navy after facing four counts of domestic assault in a military court. The victim of the assaults said that one incident also included a sexual offense.
