A Miller County jury of six men and six women sentenced a man to life in prison plus 20 years Friday for sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in 2004 and 2005.
Gerald Herbert Lowery, 58, was sentenced by the jury to life in prison for rape and to 20 years for second-degree sexual assault. Circuit Judge Carlton Jones followed the jury’s recommendation and ordered the terms to run consecutively.
Lowery has an active warrant in Pulaski County, Ark., also for child sexual abuse. The alleged victim in that case, an 11-year-old relative of Lowery’s, testified in the Miller County case Tuesday.
Lowery was sentenced in Miller County for misconduct with the daughter of a former girlfriend’s roommate. In 2004, Lowery and his girlfriend shared an apartment with the victim and her mother at the Links in Texarkana, Ark. The girl never told anyone about the abuse and was living in California when at 19, her mother handed her the phone. Lowery was on the other end of the line and the contact with him after 13 years led her to experience migraines, panic attacks and relive her childhood trauma in nightmares.
The victim disclosed the abuse to her mother late last year and contacted law enforcement. After the victim in Miller County came forward, the girl in Pulaski County made an outcry of sexual abuse.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Connie Mitchell and Kristian Robertson argued that Lowery is a pedophile who manipulates women and children to serve his own perverted desires. There is no parole from a life sentence in the state of Arkansas.
