Without Attorney, Rowe No Show at Hearing

Michael Rowe did not appear at a bond hearing Tuesday, though he was on the docket to come before Cobb County Magistrate Judge Joan Vaughan Bloom.

Rowe, a 51-year-old Powder Springs resident and setting the couple’s house on fire, was put on the hearing docket following his last month. Placing him on Tuesday’s docket was an automatic action, said Misty Wilbur, a deputy clerk for Cobb County Magistrate Court. 

“We have to automatically set those cases,” she said.

But since he does not yet have a private attorney or public defender, he could not have a bond hearing Tuesday, Wilbur said.

“If their attorney is not present in the courtroom, we cannot have a hearing,” she said, adding that until an attorney files a motion, another hearing won’t be scheduled.

For the criminal trial against Rowe to proceed, an indictment must be filed—something that could take between six and eight months, Wilbur said.   

It was unclear Tuesday if Rowe had waved his right to a public defender or was trying to seek a private attorney. Employees of the Circuit Defender’s Office directed questioning to Administrator Randy Harris, who is out of town this week. They said no one else from their office could answer questions from the media.

Rowe's wife, 55-year-old Kathy R. Robertson,  on Jan. 24 after the fire that engulfed the couple's home at 3544 Ponderosa Lane in Powder Springs was extinguished. 

Tuesday’s docket lists the charges against Rowe as felony murder, aggravated assault and first-degree arson. Originally, he was also charged with malice murder by police.

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