Man sentenced for stabbing at homeless encampment in Santa Barbara
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Donald Joseph Lowe has been sentenced to 18 years and four months in state prison, followed by 25 years to life for a stabbing incident and drug charges in Santa Barbara.
The District Attorney's Office said this is the only felony jury trial completed in Santa Barbara County since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
59-year-old Lowe was convicted in October 2020 of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury and possession of methamphetamine and heroin for purposes of sale.
These charges came from an incident in 2018 where Lowe confronted a man over a drug debt at a homeless encampment near the Patterson off-ramp of the southbound 101 freeway.
Lowe stabbed the man in the stomach during the confrontation. A Good Samaritan heard the victim's cries for help and called 911. First responders got him to a hospital where life-saving surgery was performed.
District Attorney Joyce Dudley commended the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department, local paramedics and the treating physicians from Cottage Hospital for helping solve this crime and saving a young man’s life.
Lowe was previously convicted in Los Angeles County for a 1981 murder and was granted parole in 2012. Shortly after his parole, he once again began committing serious crimes.
