The Charleston Gazette - News



Tommy Workman darted out of a Charleston convenience store Wednesday evening, allegedly without paying for a case of Budweiser, and leaped into the bed of his friend's truck.



He told the driver, Donnie Allen Sowards, 31, to flee, and the 1979 model Ford sped away from the 7-Eleven onto Oakhurst Drive.



It was sometime during that getaway that Sowards and Workman's ex-wife, who was also in the truck's cab, noticed their passenger was missing.



"I don't think they knew. They didn't know when or where he fell out," said Charleston Police Cpl. J.K. Coyner.



Workman had been thrown from the truck bed and was lying in the road a short distance from the 7-Eleven, dead from apparent massive head wounds.