TEXARKANA, Arkansas - The Arkansas Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction and sentence of life plus 20 years assessed a man for child sex abuse by a Miller County jury.
Gerald Herbert Lowery, 60, was convicted of rape and sexual assault of a child in 2018 for conduct that occurred more than a decade before. In an opinion issued Thursday, the Arkansas Supreme Court rejected Lowery's argument that his trial lawyers were ineffective and he should get a new trial.
"I am very pleased with the Supreme Court opinion finding that Mr. Lowery received a fair trial and was competently represented by counsel. The victims of his sexual abuse can rest easy that this matter is finally behind them," Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell said.
At trial another alleged victim of Lowery testified that he sexually abused her in a different jurisdiction.
Lowery was selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door in Texarkana in 2004. He was living with a woman about 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.
Mitchell told the jury at trial 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 Lowery and his voice 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 is currently being held in the Varner Unit of the Arkansas Department of Corrections in Gould, Arkansas.