LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - Nearly 10 months after a central Arkansas realtor was found dead in Pulaski County, the woman accused of killing her has changed her plea to guilty.
Crystal Lowery was charged with capital murder and kidnapping of Beverly Carter, but pleaded guilty to first degree murder. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison and will testify at the trial of her estranged husband Arron Lewis.
Lewis is charged with capital murder, kidnapping, and robbery.
In late September, Carter was reported missing after she did not return home from showing a house to a prospective cash-buyer. Days later, her body was found in a shallow grave almost 20 miles from the home she was showing.
"Are you sorry for her death?" "Yes, I'm sorry for her death," Crystal Lowery responded. Those six words are all Crystal Lowery had to say to media as she left the courtroom Tuesday morning. "Overwhelming and sad," Kim Carter said.
Lowery originally entered a not guilty plea to capital murder. But on Tuesday, Lowery plead guilty to first degree murder and kidnapping. "We reduced the charge from capital murder to murder in the first degree conditioned on her truthful testimony at trial. So she has to provide truthful testimony," Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson explained.
For the Carter family, this is only the first sign of closure. "I'm not grateful and I'm not thankful. But glad she did the right thing." Kim Carter is Beverly's daughter-in-law. Before court Tuesday morning, Carter said she was prepared for Lowery's plea, but the unexpected emotion is what no one could brace themselves for.
"That's all I could think of was this face I'm staring at is the last face that Beverly saw. How sad that they could look at Beverly's face and do that. You know?"
Now, Kim and the rest of her loved ones will continue the healing process as they prepare for the next step in the family's nightmare turned reality.
"I don't think that when you're responsible for taking the life of anyone that any sentence is fair, whatsoever. I think that the justice system has to do what they're supposed to do and we just have to hope that the right thing's done," said Carter.
Lowery's plea statement:
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