By Michael Copley
Staff Writer

A Powhatan man was convicted of malicious wounding for burning the leg of a man who was asleep on his property. 

Steven Y. Bowls, 28, told a deputy at the scene that he couldn’t wake the victim, “So I set [him] on fire. What was I supposed to do? He wouldn’t leave.”

Defense attorney Randy B. Rowlett told Judge James F. D’Alton that his client and the victim, Robert Cashion, know each other well and that both men were “extremely intoxicated” at the time of the incident.

Police were called to Bowles’ home, located in the 2400 block of Pocahontas Rd., in March on a report of shots fired.

According to the testimony of a Powhatan deputy, Bowles said he first cut the victim with a knife to try to wake him. When that failed, he fired two shots into the ground near the victim’s head.

Eventually, Bowles told the deputy, he “kicked fire on him.”

Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Beasley said there was no evidence of a fire, leading him to believe Bowles “actually set the victim ablaze.”

Beasley said the victim suffered third-degree burns on one of his legs.

Bowles pleaded guilty to malicious wounding, reduced from aggravated malicious wounding under a plea agreement, and was allowed to remain free on bond ahead of a sentencing hearing. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

He was convicted in the District Court of reckless handling of a firearm and given a suspended jail sentence.