Bowens, Linked to 2017 Murder-for-Hire Plot, Faces New Felony Charge in Northampton

By Linda Cicoira

      Aaron Jamaras Bowens is in trouble again.

      The former Painter man was paid $1,000 when he claimed to injure a police informant in a 2017 murder for hire conspiracy instigated by an Accomack Jail inmate who was trying to get rid of a witness to his drug crimes. A former Northampton County prosecutor once accused Bowen of murdering an Exmore man.

     Now, the 30-year-old, who is known locally as Easy and BOBO, is facing a felony eluding charge that was brought on Monday by a Northampton Grand Jury.

     The defendant was released from prison in 2025 and was on probation when the April 11 incident is alleged to have occurred. He was also on probation from a 2025 DUI conviction, records state. Bowens pleaded guilty in Accomack Circuit Court to conspiring with a prisoner to commit capital murder. He was sentenced to 20 years, with all but five suspended.

     He lives between a relative’s house in Yorktown and the home of his children’s mother in Hampton, once studied welding at the Eastern Shore Community College and was working in construction and maintenance for a Suffolk firm when he was arrested for the most recent charge. 

     The court file quotes him saying he attended a birthday party in Belle Haven in April and after that “doesn’t remember anything other than being scared.”

     At a few minutes before midnight that day, Exmore Police Officer Angel Mateo was conducting a traffic stop when a vehicle going “at a high rate of speed” nearly struck him on Lankford Highway. Mateo followed the car south, down Rogers Drive in Nassawadox, and onto Bayside Road. Bowens, the alleged driver, wouldn’t pull over, then stopped, got out of the car, and fled into the woods. The report says the driver was told multiple times to halt. “Eventually a taser was deployed” and he was tackled and arrested. He refused EMS aid and to taking a breathalyzer. 

     In the murder-for-hire case, the victim was Nathaniel “Nate” Johnson, an Eastern Shore Drug Task Force informant. Authorities say Bowens didn’t actually shoot Johnson so he was not charged with that crime. But he was asked to kill him. After the shooting occurred, he claimed responsibility and accepted the money. 

    Bowens was also identified through cell phone and jail phone records. on the other end of the call calls was Evron Terrell Strand Sr., an inmate ordering the hit. Strand got 50 years for that and other charges. Strand wanted to stop Johnson from testifying against him on cocaine distribution charges.

Former Northampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Bruce Jones publicly accused Bowens of murdering an Exmore man a few years ago although he was never charged with the crime. A search of Bowens’ home resulted in street gang-related notes being confiscated. 

Jones accused Bowens of the shooting death of Terrell “Juice” Devone Mason, a 26-year-old father of eight, who was killed in 2015. Mason was shot through the window of a shed, where neighborhood family and friends gathered to play cards, in Exmore. Bowens maintains he is innocent of this accusation.

“I am trying so hard to do the best I can out here,” Bowens said in a text this week.

Bowens was also involved in an incident at the former Sage Restaurant in Exmore soon after that. He was hit in the leg by gunfire, which was followed by a high-speed police chase.