[1]Joseph M. Lowery looks over court documents with his lawyer at his sentencing hearing yesterday.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The prison sentence he was given is almost as long as he is old.
Before the judge made the decision, Joseph M. Lowery, the 20-year-old who grew up in Winlock, turned toward his ex-girlfriend sitting in the very back of the courtroom and apologized for shooting her in the back.
“I hope you recover to the best of your abilities,” Lowery said. “I’m sorry for what I did, you didn’t deserve it. I truly am.”
[2]Joseph M. Lowery
Shyann Gallimore, also 20, and also a resident of the small South Lewis County town, chose not to make a statement to the court.
Lowery was arrested in July after the shooting on the outskirts of Winolequa Park in Winlock.
Prosecutors said Lowery and a 16-year-old boy found Gallimore on a Saturday evening; she was alone, sitting next to a stream and talking on her phone with a friend she’d asked to pick her up.
Authorities said Lowery leaned into some bushes from some 50 feet away and took aim with a 22 caliber pistol, pulled the trigger and then ran off.
“She underwent a procedure to have the bullet removed,” Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said. “She won’t know what the long term consequences are until time passes.”
Halstead told the judge, yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court, the defendant made a full confession.
He was cooperative with the sheriff’s office, going through a videotaped reenactment of what transpired, defense attorney David Arcuri said.
“What I thought was most striking, was the matter of fact, honest way Mr. Lowery just admitted it,” Arcuri said.
His client was contrite from the beginning, Arcuri said.
Lowery pleaded guilty last week to attempted first-degree murder. As part of the plea deal, Halstead dropped a firearm enhancement, which would have added five years to the sentence.
Halstead and Arcuri both recommended to the judge he be given 220 months – 18 years and four months.
Judge Richard Brosey agreed.
Before Lowery was taken back down to the jail, Brosey ordered him to have no contact for life with the victim. He also gave him three years of supervision following his release from prison.
Lowery’s mother and other family members were in the audience during yesterday’s hearing, but declined to comment.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office in its investigation conveyed to prosecutors Lowery had grown tired of his former girlfriend disrespecting the “Juggalo family.” They said he identified himself as a Juggalo, a name for fans of performance artists called the Insane Clown Posse.
Arcuri after the hearing said he wouldn’t discuss what he understood to be the reason his client did what he did.
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For background, read “Prosecutors: Winlock park shooter grew tired of ex-girlfriend disrespecting gang” from Tuesday July 21, 2015, here [3]