Prosecutors will pursue the death penalty for the woman accused of shooting a funeral home director's wife at his command.

Assistant District Attorney Keith Warner announced during a hearing Tuesday that the trial of Rose Vincent will be a capital case.

Vincent is accused, along with Mark Bowling, of first-degree murder in the December shooting death of Bowling's wife, Julie.

A similar announcement is expected today in a hearing for Mark Bowling.

Rick Hamlett, Vincent's attorney, said that despite the announcement he does not believe his client's case will warrant consideration of the death penalty.

"I maintain her innocence, but in the case of a conviction, I don't foresee a death verdict based on what I know about the case," Hamlett said. "I don't think there are any of the aggravating factors that would have to be shown that are applicable to my client's case."

Aggravating factors that could lead to a death sentence include murder for monetary gain or for "especially heinous atrocious or cruel" crime, according to state law.

Bowling allegedly coordinated with Vincent to kill his wife, who worked as a radiation therapist and was a partner in his funeral home business.

Vincent, believed to be romantically involved with Mark Bowling, confessed to shooting Julie Bowling a day after her body was found in the garage of her home on River Glenn, according to search warrants.

Search warrants state that a fax and computer files confiscated from Bowling Funeral Home and Crematory in Rocky Mount will offer proof that Mark Bowling, who was on vacation in Crystal River, Fla., at the time of the shooting, was involved in Julie Bowling's death.

Bowling, 36, and Vincent, 27, first crossed paths romantically when he directed her stepmother's funeral in 1998, when Vincent was 19 years old.

The Bowlings, married in 1999, owned and operated Bowling Funeral Homes, which operates facilities in Rocky Mount, Enfield and Scotland Neck.

The company's Tarboro facility closed in October.

Assistant District Attorney Keith Werner could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but has said he intends to try both cases capitally.

"We're planning to seek the death penalty, but that decision will be ... announced (at the hearing) anyway," Werner said in a previous interview.

Bowling was declared indigent in January because assets he shared with Julie Bowling are unavailable for his use until the trial determines whether he is disqualified from her will.

He was appointed an attorney, Tommy Moore, from the same firm he had initially planned to use.