The woman also said she did not intentionally or willingly take Xanax or smoke marijuana the afternoon of April 22, 2015 — the day the fatal crash occurred on Cox Road.
Schuster said she worked for about 10 days in 2014 at the Harem in Dayton, where she met Bowman.
“(It) started as a platonic relationship. My father had passed away when I was 18 … he was more like a father figure,” Schuster said.
She added Bowman would take her to baseball games, to the grocery story and to dinner.
She estimated Bowman gave her about $1,200 in the year they saw each other, and she said the never had a sexual relationship with him.
During testimony Wednesday, Bowman said he spent thousands of dollars in Schuster and said she performed sex acts in return.
Eventually, Bowman did make sexual advances, Schuster said, adding she always said no.
“He would try to make sexual advances and I would decline … He would get mad,” Schuster said, adding Bowman would start driving recklessly. “He scared me.”
Bowman texted Schuster the night before April 22 and asked her to meet him in West Chester Twp. after his doctor’s appointment, she said.
After getting lost, Schuster said she met up with Bowman in the area of Chipotle off Tylersville Road.
“I parked my car, locked it and got in his truck,” she said. She noticed he had a ‘gigantic’ bottle of orange juice with him.
Schuster said there were blankets and pillow in the bed of the truck “like someone was going to sleep in it.”
Bowman poured orange juice in a McDonald’s cup filled with ice, and Schuster said she drank it. Then she went into Chipotle and ordered food.
“That’s the last thing I remember,” Schuster said, adding she doesn’t remember eating the food, getting back in her car or the crash. “I believe he put something in that orange juice.”
During cross examination, Assistant Prosecutor Brad Burress asked Schuster, “You drove to meet this man who made horrible sexual advances?”
Schuster answered, “Yes, I did.”
She added Bowman told her he was “basically dying” and was on a liver transplant list.
“You kind of wanted him for his money didn’t you,” Burress then asked Schuster.
Her answer again was, “Yes.”
The family of Amber Rook, the woman killed in the crash, became emotional and left the courtroom when Schuster described her injuries in the crash as a reason she may not have told police everything she now recalls.
“I remember bits and pieces,” Schuster said. “I hit my head really hard in the crash.”
A toxicologist also testified Thursday that Schuster’s blood after the crash tested positive for Xanax and THC, a primary hallucinogenic found in marijuana.
Bowman said he and Schuster smoked marijuana and ate food in VOA park, but he did not give her Xanax.
A forensic scientist from BCI testified two and a half pills that police found in Schuster’s purse in her car after the crash were Xanax.
Schuster was the defense’s only witness. Closing arguments will begin Friday morning in common pleas Judge Keith Spaeth’s courtroom.
About the Author
