Crystal Lowery pictured on her Facebook page, 24 hours before her arrest.
Crystal Lowery is serving a 30-year sentence in Wrightsville Women’s Prison in Arkansas after pleading guilty to the kidnapping and murder of real estate agent Beverly Carter.
She and her then estranged husband, Arron Lewis, conspired to kidnap the woman in an effort to get ransom money, according to Arkansas News.
But as poorly laid plans often do, things went awry. Carter ended up dead and the couple was convicted of kidnapping and murdering the 50-year-old wife, mother, and grandmother.
Crystal Lowery told the court that she asked her husband, Arron Lewis, to move out and she filed for divorce. In order for him to have money to leave, the two hatched a plan to find someone who was married, but worked alone so they could to kidnap them and get ransom money, Arkansas News reported.
Carter was chosen because Lewis and Lowery assumed she was “rich” due to her career in real estate, according to Arkansaw News. Lowery testified in court, “We talked about (targeting) someone who was working alone.”
They lured Carter to a property posing as a couple who were interested in buying a house on September 26, 2014, and then abducted her, taking her back to their home, according to police evidence and Lowery’s testimony.
But Carter’s husband, Carl, was never given the opportunity to pay a ransom for his wife. Lewis and Lowery’s plan fell apart when Beverly was about three hours late coming home. Carl went to the property where she was supposed to be and found her car and her purse, but no sign of his wife. He called the police, Arkansas Online reported, and from there a massive search for Beverly was underway.
Four days after Carter was reported missing, her body was found in a shallow grave on September 30. By then Pulaski County deputies had already pegged Lewis as a person of interest when Carter was still missing, according to Arkansas Online.
Lewis was charged with the kidnapping and murder of Carter after her body was found, and on October 30, Lowery was also arrested and charged for the same crimes.
Lowery Testified in Court That She Wanted Carter Gone Because She Was Afraid of Getting Caught
Lowery took a plea deal in the case, agreeing to testify against her husband. In return, she would get a reduced sentence, according to CBS News.
As part of her testimony, she said, “I wanted her gone,” Arkansas Online reported.
That’s because during Carter’s abduction Lewis and Lowery put her in the bathroom of their house, and Lowery was afraid Carter saw her name on prescription bottles that were in the bathroom. Lewis also was afraid they’d get caught because Carter knew what he looked like, so the couple agreed that they had to kill her, Arkansas News reported.
According to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Lewis wrapped Carter’s face six times with green duct-tape which caused her to slowly suffocate. The couple then buried Carter’s body behind a concrete plant.
Lowery Was Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison but Asked Arkansas Governor to Cut Her Time in Half so She Can Prove Herself ‘Redeemable to Society’
Arkansas Department of CorrectionsCrystal Lowery
Lowery was sent to Wrightsville Women’s Prison on July 9, 2015. On March 5, 2020, she wrote a letter to Arkansas Governor, Asa Hutchinson, asking that her 30-year sentence be cut in half.
In the letter obtained by news station KATV, Lowery said “I have a debt to pay to society and it would be more productive to pay this debt volunteering and monitoring on the outside than staring at four walls on the inside eating up taxpayer dollars. I am asking you for a second chance to prove myself redeemable to society.”
In the letter to the governor, Lowery also said that she is a good person from a good family who just got mixed up with the wrong guy. She said if she never met him she would not be in prison right now, but she also said she takes responsibility for her actions in Carter’s death and for not doing anything to prevent it.
She talked about how she found God in prison and has been working on bettering herself since being incarcerated, but complained that even though she has “done every program available, it has done nothing to reduce [her] time.” Adding, “I am willing to do anything I need to do to show I am rehabilitated and I am not a danger to anyone.”
However, as of October 15, the Arkansas Department of Corrections shows that Lowery is still in prison with the earliest possible parole being November 29, 2035. Lowery will be 62 years old.
Lewis is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at Varner Super Max Prison in Arkansas.
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