YORK COUNTY, S.C. (CN2) – Jermaine Lowery, a man accused of burglary, kidnapping, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime is standing before a judge and facing his victims this Thursday.
Those victims getting the chance to confront their attacker, and things got pretty emotional inside the courtroom. Jermaine Lowery was sentenced to 30 years for an incident that took place in July of 2016. The victims described him as a monster, saying that the incident took longer than an hour and a half.
Authorities say the 25-year-old broke into a clover family’s home, on Birchwood Drive midday wearing bandanas covering half of their faces.
“They pulled her by her hair, they tied her up, and they put her in a closet,” said Matthew Shelton.
Solicitor Kevin Brackett stated, “To have strangers come in, force you to kneel down in front of your son while they have a gun to his head and you don’t know if in the next ten seconds or not he’s still going to be alive, what sort of human being could do that to another human being?”
His victims found the courage to confront the man who terrorized them in court, as they fought back tears.
The mother of one of the victims, and a victim herself Jessica Dawn Parker says she doesn’t want Lowery, who has an extensive record to receive a slap on the wrist yet again. Parker said, “He’s going to kill somebody, and he’s going to smile and laugh at them too.”
She says her life has forever been changed by what he did, “he was the monster in my home. He enjoyed what he did. The longer they were there, the more he got off on it, because his eyes got bigger. He got high on terrorizing my family.”
Lowery who was on probation when the crime was committed, was arrested weeks after the incident took place. Throughout the proceeding, Lowery clutched his bible. His mother asked the judge for mercy stating 30 years is a long time.
Lowery didn’t really seem to have a big emotional response to hearing that he would be serving 30 years. The only time I really saw him be emotional was when he heard his mother, sister, aunt, and grandmother speak up and ask the judge for mercy.
According to authorities it is believed that others were involved in the case that have not been brought to justice.
The state says Lowery was not cooperative, and would not identify others involved.
They say he is actively trying to derail the prosecutions investigation against accused co-conspirator Jarnelle Ervin.
