A judge found that Marshee Luther acted in self-defense when she shot and killed her ex-girlfriend in Millvale last year.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christopher McDowell acquitted 26-year-old Luther of murder and felonious assault charges on May 8 at the end of a two-day bench trial.
Luther killed her former girlfriend, 29-year-old Taralynn Bowers, on Aug. 31 during a confrontation that stemmed from the couple’s ended relationship months earlier.
Prosecutors said that Luther fired a single, fatal round from a 9mm handgun that struck Bowers in the head, without knowing whether her life was really in danger or if the other woman was armed with a deadly weapon. They argued she didn’t have reasonable grounds to use deadly force.
However, Luther’s attorney said that the episode was the last in a series of threats and violence, describing his client as a survivor of domestic abuse.
“It was Marshee, or it was Taralynn that day,” Brandon Fox, the attorney, said in court. “One of them was going to live and then one of them was going to be here at the defense table.”
Dispute over relationship’s demise leads to deadly shooting
The couple started dating in December 2024 and broke up a few months later in March 2025.
On the day of the shooting, Bowers was invited to another woman’s home to talk about the breakup, Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Otero said in court. The situation grew emotional after Luther arrived, he said, although it was calm by the time both women went their separate ways.
Bowers left the home but returned uninvited less than an hour later, now calling for Luther to come outside to fight, according to trial testimony.
Luther told police she didn’t want to fight and was sitting on the couch when Bowers came inside toward her and reached into a cross-body purse. She perceived the movement as a threat, stood up and pulled the trigger.
The only item found in Bowers’ purse was a foldable pocket knife.
“The knife is a hindsight fact,” Otero said in court. “But we’re not dealing with hindsight … we’re dealing with what came about in that moment.”
After the shooting, Luther called 911 and was later taken into police custody. She told investigators that the last time she saw Bowers reach for something, it was a gun.
A detective’s pros and cons list
Detective Todd Greene, one of the investigators assigned to the case, said in court that he thought deeply about charging Luther in connection with the killing.
Greene even wrote out a pros and cons list, he said, outlining Bowers’ actions leading up to the shooting and whether those supported a case against Bowers.
The cons list contained only one piece of evidence: Bowers reaching into the purse with a knife inside. In hindsight, Greene acknowledged on the witness stand, the list should’ve been longer.
He also agreed that Bowers was the initial aggressor.
Woman charged in shooting describes toxic relationship
During an interview with Cincinnati police homicide detectives, Luther described the relationship with Bowers as toxic.
Court records show that Bowers was charged with burglary in April 2025, accused of breaking into Luther’s home through a window and stealing two doorbell cameras. The charge was later dropped after Luther failed to follow through with the prosecution, according to testimony.
Fox said there were previous unreported instances in which Bowers threatened Luther with a gun and, in one alleged incident on the day of their breakup, slashed the woman’s wrist with a butcher’s knife.
“She cut me because I told her I didn’t want to be with her,” Luther said in the interview. She added that she started carrying a gun because she felt threatened by Bowers.
Prosecutors highlighted Luther’s failure to report the alleged threats and violence to authorities, along with her willingness to stay in contact with Bowers after the breakup, as reasons to doubt that Luther was afraid.
She told police that she didn’t know what was in Bowers’ purse, nor did she see the woman holding a deadly weapon. She also didn’t know about the texts Bowers sent while heading back to the Millvale residents, saying, “She’s gonna die.”
Fox argued that Luther didn’t need to know. He said the couple’s history was reasonable grounds to believe that Bowers was reaching into the purse to retrieve a weapon.
“It turns out she was right,” Fox said. “How many lethal threats have to be pointed at you and plunged into your skin before you have the right to defend yourself and stop your domestic abuser from trying to take your life?”
“This case is sad,” the attorney said. “Domestic violence always is.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Judge finds woman defended herself in killing ex during breakup dispute
Reporting by Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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