A Miller County jury sentenced a man to life plus 20 years in prison Friday for sexually abusing a 6-year-old more than a decade ago.
Gerald Herbert Lowery, 58, was selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door in Texarkana in 2004. He was living with a woman more than half his age who he worked with and they were living with another woman who had a 6-year-old daughter. While the victim's mother and Lowery's girlfriend would get out of the van and knock on doors to sell, Lowery was molesting the girl.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell told a jury of six men and six women that she could not charge Lowery for his crimes in the van as the victim did not know whether she was in Texas or Arkansas when the assaults occurred. But Lowery could be charged for his conduct with the girl in a unit of the Links Apartments where Lowery lived with his girlfriend, the victim and her mom.
Thirteen years later, when the victim was 19 and living in California, her mom handed the phone to her. It was a voice she hadn't heard in 13 years and the sound of it brought the old traumatic memories flooding back into her mind. Eventually the victim told her mother what had happened to her in 2004 and 2005 and law enforcement was contacted.
Lowery was convicted Friday of rape and sexual assault. He received a life sentence for rape and a maximum 20-year term for assault. Circuit Judge Carlton Jones ordered the terms to run consecutively.
The jury also heard testimony Tuesday from an 11-year-old relative of Lowery's who alleges she is a victim as well. The girl came forward after Lowery's arrest last year on the Miller County charges. She was living in Pulaski County with her mother and Lowery when Lowery was arrested. Pulaski County officials currently have an active warrant for Lowery in connection with the 11-year-old alleged victim.