Prosecutors: Defendant didn't shoot due to road rage, but in quest to kill someone

SEATTLE -- "What would it be like to kill someone?" asked prosecutor Adrienne McCoy at the start of Dihn Bowman's murder trial Wednesday. She told jurors it's a question Bowman needed an answer to and why he targeted Yancy Noll.

Prosecutors are beginning the trial by painting a picture of a calculated, cold-blooded killer.

"He fantasized, researched, and prepared for the opportunity to kill another human being," said McCoy, asserting that it wasn’t road rage that led to the shooting of Noll two years ago, as both sat in their cars at a light in the Roosevelt neighborhood.

Prosecutors plan on presenting jurors with evidence that Bowman fantasized about killing someone. They'll  show videos highlighting his expertise with handguns, and several books they say he owned, including a manual on how to assassinate someone and get away with it.

The 43-year old Noll was a popular wine steward at QFC, and the courtroom was packed with his friends and family.



The defense for Dinh Bowman includes famed attorney John Henry Browne, who chose not to offer opening arguments, but admits his defense could be that the shootings were self-defense.

"If you have a reasonable doubt as to whether it’s self-defense or not, you must acquit," said Browne.

Prosecutors say that doesn’t explain why Bowman drove his BMW to Portland after the shooting and paid cash to replace a window, while changing the cars tires and painting the wheels.

That's more evidence that McCoy, the prosecutor, says points to a calculated effort to get away with murder.

"This was not road rage, this was a fulfillment of a quest to know what it would be like to kill someone ."

The trial is expected to last well into December.