Fired Deloitte employee sentenced in attempted murder of ex-boss in Southlake

A fired Deloitte & Touche account manager accused of stealing from the accounting firm and then trying to kill his former boss in Southlake in August was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday.

Alan Fowler, 40, received the maximum sentence after he was convicted of attempted murder, a second-degree felony, on Monday.

He was acquitted on two counts of attempted capital murder — one with a secondary charge of retaliation, the other with a secondary charge of burglary — which could have led to a life sentence. He was also acquitted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The crime happened early Aug. 9 at Kevin Lane’s home on Berkshire Lane, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Lane, who had been Fowler’s supervisor at Deloitte’s Dallas office, was out of town, but his wife was home when their burglary alarm sounded about 4 a.m.

Police responded and found Fowler sitting on the ground in an outdoor kitchen at the home.

When asked if he knew who lived there, he said that he did and that he was “just trying to scare her husband,” the affidavit said.

Police found a pocketknife on Fowler and discovered that the home’s power had been cut off.

Later that morning, Lane’s wife found a bag containing a 9mm handgun in a drawer of the outdoor kitchen. An oil filter was attached to the barrel, believed by police to be a makeshift silencer, according to the affidavit. An extra magazine with several bullets in it was also found in the bag.

Investigators then discovered a small hole in a window at the home and a matching hole on a wall inside.

Police confirmed that at least one bullet had been fired and that Fowler purchased the weapon at a store in Shreveport, where he had been living.

At his trial, his attorney, J. Warren St. John, argued that Fowler had gone to Lane’s back yard to commit suicide “to send a message” to Deloitte & Touche, alleging that the company did not properly handle Fowler’s battle with depression.

“He never had any intent to kill” Lane, St. John said.

Fowler fired in 2015

Prosecutors painted a different picture of Fowler’s time at Deloitte.

Fowler, according to court documents, began missing meetings and showing up late for appointments in 2014 and then asked for time off several months later.

In August 2015, Deloitte discovered that Fowler had been using a company credit card to pay for family vacations and buy thousands of dollars’ worth of gift cards, the documents said.

Though he was not charged with a crime in the alleged theft, the firm fired Fowler, who then filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit. Lane was a witness in the lawsuit, and Fowler often blamed him for his problems at the firm, court documents said.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Louisiana and then transferred to federal court in Dallas, was dismissed in April.

Prosecutor Ashlea Deener said Fowler’s attempt to kill Lane was retaliation for his fallout with Deloitte.

“He blamed him for his demise at the firm,” Deener said. “He had such a hyperfocus on him.”

‘Riddled’ with intent

What Fowler did in the weeks leading up to the August incident proved his intent, Deener said.

Evidence showed that Fowler in July paid for an online background report on Lane, and that he searched for Lane’s address on the Tarrant Appraisal District website.

Fowler also searched for Lane’s home on Google Maps and looked at the street view and bird’s-eye view, according to court documents.

Fowler then visited the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives website and clicked on a page that explained how weapons that fall under the National Firearms Act can be legally purchased. Silencers fall under the act.

The evidence also showed Fowler’s gun purchase at the Shreveport store and his purchase on Amazon of a pocketknife and two oil filter adapters.

On the day of the incident at Lane’s home, Fowler parked several blocks away and made his vehicle appear to be broken down, according to court documents.

Police later found on Lane’s online search history the following words: Kevin Lane, Lisa Lane, Silencer, Suppressor, Gun, Guns, Berkshire, Southlake, Deloitte, Murder and Murderer.

“This case is riddled with more specific intent to kill than any case I’ve seen,” Deener said.

Fowler plans to appeal the conviction.

St. John, Fowler’s attorney, said he believes that prosecutors’ evidence was “legally insufficient” to prove Fowler intended to kill Lane.

He questioned why the jury convicted Fowler on the lesser murder charge but not on the two capital murder charges.

“I don’t quite understand their logic,” St. John said.

This story was originally published May 10, 2017 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Fired Deloitte employee sentenced in attempted murder of ex-boss in Southlake."