Donevyn Bowie’s plea ended a murder trial tied to a fatal 2023 shooting at a North Side apartment.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A 25-year-old San Antonio man was sentenced to 38 years in prison after entering a plea in the killing of his girlfriend, who prosecutors said was shot during an argument over money at a North Side apartment.

Donevyn Bowie was sentenced April 20 in Bexar County’s 290th Criminal District Court for the death of 21-year-old Shamiah Allen. The sentence closed a murder case that had been moving toward trial earlier in April and placed Bowie in prison for nearly four decades. Prosecutors described the case as domestic violence, while court and police accounts focused on the confrontation, the 911 response and Bowie’s later claim that the shooting was accidental.

The case began on Dec. 15, 2023, at the Ridgeline at Rogers Ranch Apartments in the 3200 block of North Loop 1604 West. San Antonio police were called shortly after 9:30 p.m. and found Allen with gunshot wounds. Prosecutors said Bowie and Allen had been in a heated argument over finances before Bowie shot Allen twice while she was in a bathtub. Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said the shooting was “a senseless act of violence that took a life in a moment of anger.” He said the sentence showed accountability and reflected his office’s effort to seek justice for victims of domestic violence.

Local reports said Bowie remained at or near the apartment complex after the shooting and surrendered when officers arrived. Investigators said he later claimed the shooting was accidental. Other reports, citing police and court records, said Bowie called 911 after the shooting and admitted he had shot Allen. The public record does not fully explain what Bowie said during the plea hearing, what evidence prosecutors planned to present at trial or whether Allen’s relatives spoke in court before the sentence was imposed. The central facts released by authorities were the location, the financial argument, the two shots and the 38-year prison term.

The sentencing came two years and four months after the shooting. County court records showed Bowie’s trial began April 6 before Judge Jennifer Peña in the 290th Criminal District Court. By April 20, the case had ended with a plea agreement and a prison sentence. Murder in Texas can carry a punishment range of five to 99 years or life in prison, and Bowie’s 38-year term fell within that range. A Bexar County jail activity record listed Bowie under a murder charge, with the offense date as Dec. 15, 2023, and the court as the 290th District Court.

Allen was identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office as the person killed in the apartment. Her obituary listed her as Shamiah Shanae Allen, age 21, of Atlanta, Georgia. It said she entered into rest on Dec. 15, 2023, in San Antonio and that services were to be held in Jonesboro, Georgia. The brief public notice offered only a few details about her life, but it placed the loss across two communities: the Texas city where she died and the Georgia area where her final arrangements were entrusted to a funeral home. The shooting happened on a Friday night when San Antonio police were already responding to a string of violence across the city. KSAT reported that Allen’s killing was one of six shootings San Antonio police answered in less than two and a half hours on Dec. 15, 2023. That context did not change the facts of Bowie’s case, but it showed the burden on police and emergency crews that night. Officers who arrived at the apartment complex found a domestic killing that prosecutors later said grew out of an argument about finances.

The apartment complex sits near the North Loop 1604 corridor, an area of apartments, shops and major roads on the city’s North Side. The site became part of the record because police and prosecutors tied the homicide to a specific apartment scene rather than a public street or commercial space. Prosecutors said Allen was in a bathtub when she was shot. They did not release a full narrative of the argument, how long it lasted or what financial issue sparked it. Those details remained limited in the public accounts after Bowie’s plea.

Bowie’s claim that the shooting was accidental became one of the notable points in the case, but the plea meant a jury did not weigh that claim in a full verdict. Prosecutors treated the death as murder, and the court imposed a long prison sentence. The public accounts did not say whether the firearm was recovered at the scene, whether forensic testimony had begun during trial or whether Bowie made a formal statement to Allen’s family. With the plea entered, those questions did not receive the same public airing they might have during a completed trial.

The immediate legal milestone is finished: Bowie has been sentenced to 38 years in prison in the murder case. The next steps are administrative ones tied to custody, prison transfer and any post-judgment filings that may appear in court records. As of May 17, 2026, officials had announced no new hearing date in the case.

Author note: Last updated May 17, 2026.