TAMPA - Police file stiff new charges against Bernice Bowen, saying her
lies contributed to the
deaths of three officers.

When Hank Earl Carr fired the bullets that killed three law enforcement
officers, his girlfriend was
miles away.

But now she's the one facing life behind bars.

Tuesday, investigators charged Bernice Bowen with being an accessory
after the fact to three
counts of first-degree murder and one count of escape.

"From the time we had our first contact with Bernice, she lied to us,"
Tampa homicide Sgt. Dan
Grossi said. "Had she told us who Hank Carr was, we would have done
things differently and I feel
strongly the situation would not have ended the way it did."

Bowen, 25, has been in jail since May 28, charged with two counts of
felony child neglect. A judge
set bail at $50,000, but she's been unable to raise enough money for her
release.

Tuesday's charges pack a more potent punch. If prosecutors win a
conviction, they could seek a life
sentence.

The additional charges were the result of a monthlong investigation into
the May 19 deaths of
Bowen's 4-year-old son, two Tampa detectives and a state trooper. Police
say Carr, who was
living with Bowen and her children, fatally shot the boy, then went on a
cop-killing spree that
spanned three counties.

Detectives Ricky Childers and Randy Bell and Florida Highway Patrol
Trooper James B. Crooks
lost their lives. After holding a clerk hostage in a Hernando gas
station, Carr committed suicide.

Throughout the day, Bowen repeatedly told investigators her boyfriend's
name was Joseph Bennett.
When they persisted in questioning her about his identity, she gave them
several other possibilities,
police said.

According to Tuesday's arrest affidavit, Bowen didn't acknowledge she
knew Carr's real name until
he revealed it to a radio reporter. The interview, broadcast live, took
place hours after the three
officers were killed.

The affidavit also charges that Bowen failed to tell investigators that
Carr carried a handcuff key,
that he was a convicted felon with outstanding warrants and that his
mother lived in Tampa.

Police say Carr stopped at his mother's home after killing Childers and
Bell. Had officers known
Gail Cox's address, they might have been able to arrest Carr there
before he encountered the
trooper.

At one point before the slayings, Bowen boasted to a friend that she and
her boyfriend would "go
out in a blaze of glory" if they encountered any trouble with the law,
the affidavit says.

Authorities also claim Bowen told acquaintances she wished Carr "would
have come out of the gas
station and shot the gas tanks to kill all the cops."

But Tuesday, Bowen's lawyer said his client is filled with remorse.

Told of the new charges, Bowen was "blown away, broke down and cried,"
John Kromholz said.
"She's wishing she could have taken the bullets for the officers."

The lawyer contends that Bowen had no idea what Carr was going to do
later in the day.

"[Carr] probably didn't know what he was going to do," he said. "Nobody
knew."

In shock after the death of her son, Bowen was in a fragile state of
mind. She answered the
questions investigators asked her, Kromholz said.

"It's a lot of conjecture from minor details from a day when a mother
just saw her son die," he said.

Although Carr referred to Bowen as his wife, the couple were not
married, police said. If they had
been, Bowen might not be in as much trouble.

Florida law prohibits authorities from charging a suspect's blood
relatives or spouse with accessory
after the fact.

Reached at her home in Marietta, Ohio, Bowen's mother refused to comment
on the new
developments, but Bowen's uncle and stepfather told an Ohio newspaper
reporter the family knew
the charges were coming.

"The only thing I can tell you is they [the police] were discussing
those and several other charges I
will not name," Michael Bowen said.

He was even more cryptic when it came to his stepdaughter's future.

"I figure the police know their business like our attorneys know
theirs."