Prosecutors in Los Angeles have charged Nicholas James Bowling, aka Nick James, 28, with the strangulation murder of Frank Rogers, 48, during what police are calling a “domestic dispute.”
Bowling and Rogers were in a non-steady relationship, according to The Pride LA, The report says Rogers was visiting Bowling at a sober living home at Waterloo and Elsinore Streets in the Echo Park neighborhood, where police say he was strangled by Bowling.
Bowling is no stranger to the struggle with substance abuse, The Pride LA reported, and over the past several years has been in and out of a variety of rehabilitation and sober living homes throughout L.A. He also made headlines in 2012 when he crashed a police car he had stolen into a telephone pole and lost both legs.
In this incident on July 8, police say an enraged Bowling overpowered Rogers, locked him into what they describe as a “choke-hold” and held him there until Rogers breathed his last.
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Rogers was reported to be a well known and highly regarded member of L.A.’s recovery community. Bowling was said by an acquaintance who asked to remain anonymous, that “he uses his disability,” and was said to be irascible and charming at the same time. “He often said he was the most beautiful man in West Hollywood,” one source told The Pride L.A.
Bail was to be set at $2 million.