Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – On November 17, 2023, following a two-week trial, a Juneau jury found 47-year-old Sonya Helen Taton guilty of multiple counts for the June 17, 2019 murder of Gregory Bowen and the February 13, 2016 stabbing of Michael Garrison. The jury convicted Taton of two counts of murder in the second degree, one count of manslaughter, and two counts of assault in the first degree.
After evidence was presented at trial, the jury convicted Taton for the February 2016 incident where Taton stabbed her boyfriend Michael Garrison in the femoral artery. Taton refused to call 9-1-1. Garrison, a trained combat medic, was able to apply an improvised tourniquet and call 9-1-1. Garrison refused to tell first responders what had occurred.
The jury also convicted Taton for the June 2019 incident where she stabbed her boyfriend Gregory Bowen in the abdomen at his home in Juneau. Taton made five other phone calls before calling 9-1-1, and when responders arrived she blamed Bowen for cutting himself. Bowen died June 29, 2019 after being medevacked to Seattle. It was after Bowen’s death that Juneau Police reopened the investigation into the 2016 stabbing, and Taton was later charged for that offense.
The court joined the two cases for a single jury trial which began November 2 and concluded with the jury’s five guilty verdicts on November 17, 2023. The Juneau jury heard from 28 witnesses and deliberated for less than one day before returning the verdicts.
The cases were investigated by Juneau Police Department’s Detective Patrick Taylor. Assistant Attorneys General Daniel K. Shorey and Kate Tallmadge prosecuted the case along with paralegal Marley Hettinger of the Juneau District Attorney’s Office.
Taton is being held without bail pending sentencing, which is scheduled for March 8, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. The second-degree murder charges and the manslaughter charge will merge at sentencing, and Taton faces a sentencing range from 27 years to 119 years.