The Lebanon investigation that began with two witnesses ultimately ended with Jacob Cram pleading guilty and receiving 65 years in prison.
LEBANON, Ind. — Two people approaching police on a September evening helped set in motion a murder investigation that would end a year later with a guilty plea and the maximum sentence. Jacob Andrew Cram, 37, is now serving a 65-year sentence for killing his friend Donald Lee Bowers, 64, inside Bowers’ Lebanon home.
The importance of the witnesses became apparent almost immediately on Sept. 10, 2025. Lebanon police were responding to information about a possible homicide when the two people identified Cram in connection with Bowers’ death, according to reports based on court records. One had seen the scene inside Bowers’ home and described the encounter to investigators. Officers found Bowers fatally injured, located Cram nearby and took him into custody. The accounts provided investigators with a suspect before the case had developed into the months of court proceedings that followed.
One witness told investigators that Cram had been attempting to hang a blanket across a doorway in the home. According to court records quoted in news reports, Cram initially said he could not show the person what was inside before changing his mind. The witness then saw Bowers on the floor and later reported the scene to authorities. Cram also warned the witness not to disclose what had been observed, investigators were told. News organizations have reported more graphic details from the witness account, but the essential fact for the investigation was that the person saw Bowers after the attack and then went to police.
That decision gave officers information they could act on quickly. Police responded to the residence in the 500 block of South West Street at about 6:45 p.m. and found Bowers with what first responders described as obvious traumatic injuries. Officers subsequently located Cram near the home. Rather than beginning with an unidentified assailant and working backward, investigators were able to focus on a person named by witnesses at the scene. Cram’s own interview with police then added a detailed account of the attack, according to reporting based on the case file.
Cram told investigators he knew Bowers and had offered to help him enter his home because Bowers used a wheelchair. Once inside, Cram said, he attacked him. Investigators said Cram acknowledged striking Bowers with a broom handle, using a box cutter, restricting his breathing with a blanket and stabbing him with a screwdriver. He also said Bowers fought back during the assault. Although those statements described how the killing occurred, authorities have not publicly released a motive. That unanswered question remained even after Cram admitted the murder in court.
The witness information and Cram’s statements meant prosecutors entered the case with evidence that could have been presented at a jury trial. Cram was in fact scheduled to go to trial in September 2026, roughly one year after Bowers’ death. That trial never took place. On Aug. 21, Cram appeared before Boone Superior Court I Judge Matthew Kincaid and pleaded guilty to murder. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a habitual-offender enhancement but did not agree to a reduced sentence for the murder count.
The plea changed the legal significance of the evidence collected after the witnesses came forward. Prosecutors no longer needed to call those witnesses before a jury to establish Cram’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Nor did they need to litigate the admissibility and weight of every part of the state’s case through a full trial. By admitting murder, Cram resolved the central factual question that the planned trial would have answered. The remaining court decision concerned punishment, with Indiana law providing a 45-to-65-year sentencing range for the murder conviction.
Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood said his office had discussed the proposed plea with Bowers’ family before presenting it to the court and that the family supported the resolution. Prosecutors said a guaranteed conviction removed the risk inherent in a trial and reduced the likelihood of extended litigation afterward. At the same time, they emphasized that the plea did not prevent them from seeking 65 years. The state announced in advance that it planned to ask Kincaid for the maximum term, citing the circumstances of the offense and other aggravating information it intended to present at sentencing.
Cram also entered the case with a prior criminal record. Published reports citing court material said he had been released from prison about three months before Bowers’ death. He had previously been sentenced to seven years in 2018 for robbery resulting in serious injury. Prosecutors originally sought a habitual-offender enhancement in the Bowers case, but that allegation was the part they dismissed under the plea agreement. The murder conviction itself remained intact, and Cram still faced up to 65 years despite the dismissal.
On Sept. 17, Kincaid imposed the top sentence. The decision converted the state’s request into a 65-year prison term and brought an end to the uncertainty that remained after the August plea. Reports published before the hearing described Cram as facing between 45 and 65 years; the later sentencing made clear that the court chose the highest point in that range. The prosecutor’s office had also said when announcing the plea that Indiana law requires a person convicted of murder under the applicable rules to serve at least 75% of the term before becoming eligible for release.
Bowers’ identity can easily be eclipsed by the unusual evidence described in the criminal case. His family’s obituary provides a different record. Donald Lee Bowers, known as Donnie, was born in Ohio on Dec. 12, 1961, and was adopted in 1962 by Phillip Don and Shirley Jean Bowers. He attended Lebanon High School, according to the obituary. Other memorial information described him as outgoing, fond of talking with people and devoted to animals. He died Sept. 10, 2025, in the home where police would begin the homicide investigation.
Nearly every major procedural step that followed can be traced back to the information police received on that first evening: witnesses identified Cram, officers found Bowers, Cram was arrested and investigators interviewed him about what had happened. Those facts then moved into court filings, a scheduled trial, negotiations over a plea and finally sentencing. Because Cram pleaded guilty, the witnesses were not required to recreate their accounts for a jury in a completed murder trial. Their initial reports nevertheless remained central to how authorities learned of the killing and identified the man responsible.
With the Sept. 17 sentencing, the case has moved from investigation and prosecution into punishment. Cram stands convicted of murder and has received 65 years in prison. The habitual-offender enhancement is no longer part of the judgment because prosecutors dismissed it under the plea agreement. Authorities still have not publicly explained what motivated Cram to attack Bowers after offering him help. The witness reports that brought police to the case, however, ultimately led to an arrest, a guilty plea and the maximum sentence available on the murder conviction.
Author note: Last updated September 30, 2026.