Hiawatha man sentenced for sexually assaulting 7-year-old girl

CEDAR RAPIDS - A 20-year-old Hiawatha man will spend 25 years in prison for breaking into a neighbor's home and sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl in 2014.

Taylor R. Bowles, who pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual abuse last month, was sentenced Monday in Linn County District Court. He must serve 70 percent of the 25-year sentence before being eligible for parole.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Sean McPartland also ordered Bowles to serve a special sentence of lifetime parole because the case involves a sex offense. Bowles will also be on the state's sex offender registry for life. A five year no-contact order was also issued to protect the victim.

The victim and her mother submitted victim's impact statements to the court, but they were not made public during the hearing on Monday.

Bowles admitted during the plea hearing that he broke into a neighbor's home and sexually assaulted the child Nov. 26, 2014. He also admitted to knowing she was under the age of 12.

As part of the plea agreement, the other charges of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree burglary were dismissed at sentencing.

Assistant Linn County Attorney Nic Scott previously said the plea agreement was offered because the law changed for kidnapping after Bowles was charged in January 2015. Bowles, after breaking into the home through a window, prevented the 7-year-old from leaving her bedroom when she tried to get away to find her mother. This action would have met the elements of the previous kidnapping law, but not after the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in a Dubuque case that there has to be more than confinement to charge someone with first-degree kidnapping.

Scott said the plea also spared the young victim from having to testify in court.

The issue wasn't lack of evidence, he said. The child even gave a description of her attacker and gave details of the assault to a forensic interviewer.

Court documents show investigators also used boot prints left in the snow to help them identify Bowles. Boot prints had been discovered in the snow at Bowles' residence, and a police officer tracked the prints to another neighbor's home and then to the girl's home at the same front window that had been entered Nov. 26. The officer then followed these prints back to Bowles' residence.

The neighbors, where the same boot prints were found, had reported in the last few months before the assault that a male was looking in the windows of their home, according to court records. The boot prints were consistent with Bowles' boots.

Investigators found additional evidence on a door and wall of the girl's home, documents stated.

Bowles had been charged for indecent exposure in 2011 as a juvenile, court records show.