CLEVELAND — 46-year-old Sean Lowry of Brecksville was sentenced to serve between seven to 10.5 years in prison on charges connected to a deadly crash in which a motorcyclist was killed on I-77 last summer.
Lowry’s sentence, which Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Hollie Gallagher announced Wednesday, comes more than a month after he pleaded guilty back on March 27 to one count of attempted involuntary manslaughter and one count of failure to stop after an accident.
“The damage in this case is so great, that a sentence must reflect the magnitude of the harm that was inflicted," Judge Gallagher said.
We streamed the full sentencing hearing, which you can watch in the video below:
The case dates back to July 29 when the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office says Lowry was driving his vehicle -- a GMC Acadia -- upwards of 120 mph on I-77 South in Independence. The prosecutor's office says Lowry then struck a 45-year-old motorcyclist on I-77 near East Pleasant Valley Road and fled the scene.
The victim, identified as James Billings, died as a result of the crash.
Lowry was arrested the next day.
Before sentencing was handed down, Lowry apologized to the victim's mother who attended the hearing via Zoom.
“I would like to apologize to you, Mrs. Keyes. I never meant to endanger your son, nor leave him on the side of the road like that," he said. "I am not that type of person, and I would feel the same way as you do towards me right now because any type of person like that is not a very good person. I don’t want to think that I’m that type of person, and I hope that you could forgive me one day."
Lowry then addressed the judge.
"Your Honor, I was drunk. I did have a problem," he said. "I would never imagine me doing what I did that night and leaving Mr. Billings there on the side of the road. I am not that type of person. I was scared. I’m not going to lie, I was drunk again. I did have a severe drinking problem that I did not want to admit until it was too late.”