Lowry gets eight years Maximum sentence declined

ELLSWORTH – Malia Lowry, the Hancock County woman convicted of manslaughter in last year’s fatal shooting of her boyfriend, was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison.

Superior Court Justice Francis Marsano handed down a 15-year sentence with seven of those years suspended.

He said Lowry’s action, in which she shot boyfriend Robert Leighton six times in the bedroom of their home in eastern Hancock County, was serious but not serious enough to mandate the maximum possible sentence of 40 years.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson had argued during the trial that Lowry shot Leighton in anger after he made a pass at another woman. He asked for a sentence of 35 years.

Defense co-counsel Jeffrey Silverstein argued that Lowry shot Leighton in terror after he had sexually assaulted her and tormented her with death-obsessed sexual fantasies. Silverstein said a sentence of 12 to 15 years would be appropriate.

“I conclude it is not in the upper category of criminality,” Marsano said in denying Benson’s request. He said that Lowry, despite testimony about bizarre sexual behavior, had been shown to be a good parent. The relationship between Lowry and Leighton, at least until last summer, had been relatively successful, he added.

“These people did not lead bad lives,” he said.

Maine law allows for a defendant’s serious criminal history to be considered if the defendant is to be sentenced for more than 20 years. Lowry had no criminal record before calling state police last summer and telling them where to find Leighton’s body.

Leighton’s relatives and friends, 15 of whom were in the courtroom Tuesday, wept and sat in disbelief as the sentence was announced.

“Congratulations,” one of Leighton’s relatives told Lowry after Marsano left the courtroom. “You just got away with murder.”

Lowry spoke to the court and to Leighton’s family, as she requested a lenient sentence. She insisted she is sorry for having killed Leighton.

“I never meant to harm Bobby but I do take full responsibility for my actions,” Lowry said as she wept. “I have ruined two wonderful families that will never again be the same.”

Lowry turned toward Leighton’s family in the gallery as she spoke, but her comments were more than some could take. Leighton’s brother Matt Leighton, their mother, Lauren Hall, and her husband all turned their backs and walked out of the courtroom as Lowry spoke.

In requesting the lighter sentence for his client, Silverstein divulged some information about Leighton that was not made public during the trial. He said that in 1990, when administrators at Leighton’s high school determined he needed a mental evaluation, Leighton blew up in anger at the suggestion and punched holes in the wall at the evaluating doctor’s office.

Silverstein said later Tuesday in an interview that he did not bring up the information during the trial because he is certain it would have been barred from testimony. “I didn’t even ask,” he said. “It would not have been considered appropriate under the rules by which we operate.”

Marsano said Tuesday that this piece of information was one of the most striking he had heard about either Leighton or Lowry during the course of the criminal proceeding.

Benson, in arguing for a harsh sentence, said society should be protected from Lowry and that clinical tests administered to her indicate that she is prone to sudden, violent outbursts of rage.

Leighton’s family, which made no public comment about his death throughout the course of the trial, addressed the court in seeking a harsh sentence for Lowry. Nicole Geel, Matt Leighton’s girlfriend, said that Robert Leighton was not the monster Lowry made him out to be. She said, contrary to Lowry’s testimony that Leighton was obsessed with vampires, that Leighton believed in God and is now in heaven. She called Lowry an actress and said she was not sorry for killing Leighton.

“You’re going to a different place, because you can fool some people but you can’t fool God,” Geel said.

Hall got up to address the court but was overcome with emotion and could not speak. Instead, her statement was read by a witness advocate. The statement referred to a “beast” that now torments Hall.

“Some may call it grief at the loss of a child, but I call it ‘the beast,'” the advocate read from Hall’s statement. “It will be with me until the day that I die.”

Benson said after the sentencing that he is disappointed in the verdict.

“Justice Marsano and I view the case differently,” he said. He declined further comment.

Silverstein said he is disappointed in the eight-year imposition of prison time. He added that he, co-counsel Bill Reiff and Lowry plan to appeal the conviction based on the exclusion of testimony from a domestic abuse expert and the lack of written instructions to the jury.

Silverstein said it would likely take six months to a year for the appeal to come before the Maine Law Court.

Lowry is expected to be taken Wednesday from the Hancock County jail to the state prison system to begin serving her sentence.