Parolee Vernon Lowe of Roosevelt gets 25 to life in 2018 gas station beating, robbery

A Roosevelt man was sentenced this week to 25 years to life imprisonment for robbing and beating a gas station attendant with metal vise grips in 2018 — two months after being paroled from a 1994 prison sentence for murder.

Vernon Lowe, 56, on Monday received the mandatory sentence as a persistent violent felony offender, according to a news release from the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case.

Lowe committed the robbery Nov. 29, 2018, the office said; state prison records show he was freed Sept. 10 of that year from upstate Otisville Correctional Facility.

In the robbery, Lowe arrived on a bicycle at the Sunoco on Nassau Road in Roosevelt. He went in and out of the station’s convenience store and approached the victim and customers.

“As the gas station attendant was making change for a customer, Lowe struck the attendant in the face with a pair of metal vice grips, which caused the man to fall down and strike the back of his head on the pavement. The defendant stole money from the victim and left the scene on a bicycle,” the release said.

The attack broke the victim’s nose, several of his teeth and caused cuts to his face, the release said. Lowe was arrested about 25 minutes later.

“A hardworking immigrant employed at a gas station was repeatedly harassed by defendant Vernon Lowe while trying to help customers,” the district attorney, Anne Donnelly, said in the release. “In order to diffuse the situation, the victim gave the defendant $10 to leave the business, but was later brutally beaten by Lowe with a metal tool in the face. I thank the police department and our prosecutors for bringing this repeat violent felony offender to justice.”

Lowe also did prison time in the 1980s and early 1990s for burglaries in Nassau County, according to state prison records. He had been a champion wrestler in prison, a Hempstead police inspector told Newsday in 1993.

In 1993, Lowe killed a woman by slamming her head-first onto the pavement in an argument over drugs. He was sentenced to 22 years to life in prison, Newsday reported then. Lowe maintains his innocence in that case, his lawyer, Joseph Lo Piccolo, said Wednesday in a text message.

Nicole Turso, a district attorney’s office spokeswoman, confirmed that Lowe was the same man who was convicted in the 1993 case.

At the time of the killing, Lowe was wanted for absconding from a prison work-release program in Queens.

It was while on the lam that he sold the victim what turned out to be imitation crack. When she sought a refund, Lowe punched her, picked her up and threw her to the ground. She died from brain injuries.

In the latest case, after a two week trial, a jury convicted Lowe on Sept. 26 of assault, robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, grand larceny and resisting arrest, the release said.

Lowe maintains his innocence, Lo Piccolo said in the text message.

“He believes this is a case of mistaken identification and the police focusing on the wrong person,” Lo Piccolo said, adding: “He plans to appeal the excessive sentence handed down by the court.”

The judge, Fran Ricigliano, cited the prior felony convictions in meting out the sentence, Lo Piccolo said.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.