Dad of Wichita toddlers in summer Amber Alert pleads guilty to DV crimes, records show
The father of two toddlers who were the subject of a summertime Amber Alert in Wichita pleaded guilty last week to two counts of misdemeanor domestic battery and two counts of misdemeanor violation of a protective order connected to domestic violence crimes — including some that occurred the day of the children’s alleged abduction.
Gary Lowe III, 27, was immediately sentenced to a total of a year in jail plus $400 in fines after entering the Nov. 18 plea in two separate cases, Sedgwick County District Court records show. The judge then suspended the jail term and let Lowe go on probation for two years, the records say.
He could serve as little as a year on probation, though, if he pays all fines and court costs, has no probation violations and completes all other conditions required by the sentence, including undergoing a domestic violence offender assessment, according to court records.
Wichita police issued an Amber Alert for Lowe’s 1-year-old and 2-year-old sons on Aug. 5 after he allegedly drove off with them in their mother’s white Ford Edge following what authorities have said was a domestic violence disturbance in east Wichita where he made “suicidal and homicidal statements” threatening all of their lives, according to an August news release from the Wichita Police Department. Lowe was the children’s non-custodial father at the time, the release says.
After issuing the alert, Wichita police quickly tracked the mother’s vehicle and Lowe to a south Wichita home using the city’s Flock camera system, a network of automated license plate readers that law enforcement around the country are using to fight crime.
The children were found safe at a relative’s home, according to the police news release. Lowe’s arrest affidavit says a protective order in effect this summer barred him from having any contact with his sons’ mother.
