A 23-year-old Columbus man has pleaded guilty to killing 17-year-old Imperial Stewart, whose September 2023 disappearance ended nearly two weeks later with the discovery of his body in a wooded area off Sunbury Road. Michael Bowles entered guilty pleas on Sept. 29 to involuntary manslaughter as a lesser offense of aggravated murder, along with aggravated robbery and abuse of a corpse, according to court records.
Police said Stewart was trying to buy a gun from Bowles when the deal turned deadly, and a 16-year-old co-defendant also attempted to rob Stewart during the encounter, as reported by NBC4 WCMH-TV. Bowles is scheduled to be sentenced on the morning of Nov. 6 and faces a maximum of 37.5 years in prison. He is one of six suspects charged in connection with Stewart's death, per the station's report.
Tracing Stewart's Final Hours
Stewart was last seen on security camera footage at 6:42 p.m. on Sept. 20, 2023, climbing into a Chrysler 300 at a Sunoco gas station on Cleveland Avenue, shortly after leaving home and telling his mother he was going out to sell shoes, according to WBNS 10TV. About two hours later, Columbus police responded to a reported shooting on North Dawson Avenue, where co-defendant Mi'Quel Bowles had suffered a gunshot wound; his brother Michael dropped him off at a home on North Dawson Avenue, and emergency services later took him to Grant Medical Center, where he was uncooperative with homicide detectives, the outlet reported.
Stewart's body was found on Oct. 3, 2023, in a wooded area off Sunbury Road in northeast Columbus, concluding a search that had stretched nearly two weeks. By the time investigators located the Chrysler 300 registered to Michael Bowles on Sept. 25, 2023, it had been set on fire in a field in Fairfield County, according to the Akron Legal News.
A Family Accused of Covering Up the Crime
The case ultimately drew in several members of Bowles's family. Tywisha Peterson, the mother of Michael and Mi'Quel Bowles, was charged with obstructing justice after investigators accused her of helping dispose of the vehicle connected to the shooting, according to WBNS 10TV. Mi'Quel Bowles was separately sentenced to three years in prison, and the Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction in March 2025, ruling that his May 2024 guilty plea to third-degree felony obstruction of justice had been knowingly and voluntarily entered, per the Akron Legal News.
Genee Dumas, who was connected to Bowles through her daughter's relationship with him, allegedly attempted to break her daughter's phone and now faces felony obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence charges, per NBC4's reporting. Raymor Dumas pleaded guilty to criminal mischief in 2024, while a 16-year-old suspect was charged with murder and obstruction of justice, and a 17-year-old female suspect admitted to an obstruction charge that same year. Following his October 2023 arrest, a Franklin County Municipal Court judge set bond at $5 million for Michael Bowles, reflecting the gravity assigned to the aggravated murder charges he faced at the time.
Youth Violence Remains a City Focus
Stewart's case unfolded against a backdrop of persistent concern over young people and gun violence in Columbus. During an April hearing before Columbus City Council, police officials testified that individuals 21 and under accounted for 28% of homicide suspects and 32% of homicide victims in the city during 2025, according to WOSU Public Media.
That testimony came even as Columbus recorded 81 homicides in 2025, down from 126 the year before and the city's lowest annual total in 16 years, per WOSU. In response to ongoing worries about late-night juvenile violence, Columbus City Council updated the city's youth curfew ordinance on June 29, setting hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. for teenagers aged 13 to 17, replacing a previous midnight threshold.
