SOUTHLAKE -- A fired Deloitte & Touche account manager accused of stealing from the accounting firm and then trying to kill his former boss in Southlake in August was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday.
Alan Fowler, 40, received the maximum sentence after he was convicted of attempted murder, a second-degree felony, on Monday. He was acquitted on two counts of attempted capital murder — one with a secondary charge of retaliation, the other with a secondary charge of burglary — which could have led to a life sentence.
He was also acquitted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The crime happened early Aug. 9 at Kevin Lane’s home on Berkshire Lane, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Lane, who had been Fowler’s supervisor at Deloitte’s Dallas office, was out of town, but his wife was home when their burglary alarm sounded at about 4 a.m.
Police responded and found Fowler sitting on the ground in an outdoor kitchen at the home. When asked if he knew who lived there, he said that he did and that he was “just trying to scare her husband,” the affidavit said.
Police found a pocketknife on Fowler and discovered that the home’s power had been cut off. Later that morning, Lane’s wife found a bag containing a 9mm handgun in a drawer of the outdoor kitchen. An oil filter was attached to the barrel, believed by police to be a makeshift silencer, according to the affidavit. An extra magazine with several bullets in it was also found in the bag.
Investigators then discovered a small hole in a window at the home and a matching hole on a wall inside.
Police confirmed that at least one bullet had been fired and that Fowler purchased the weapon at a store in Shreveport, where he had been living.
At his trial, his attorney, J. Warren St. John, argued that Fowler had gone to Lane’s back yard to commit suicide “to send a message” to Deloitte & Touche, alleging that the company did not properly handle Fowler’s battle with depression.
“He never had any intent to kill” Lane, St. John said.
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