Russell Lowery was a hacker and stalker who murdered the object of his obsession, a nurse named Andrea Blake.
History[]
While serving a sentence for computer fraud at Rawling Correctional Facility, in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, Lowery was selected to work as a telemarketer, part of an agreement between prison authorities and a furniture company named Homebody. When a New York City nurse named Andrea Blake bought from Homebody, Lowery answered the call and became obsessed with her to the point where he used her credit card number to obtain detailed information on her, including her address and consumption habits. At a certain point, Lowery discovered his supervisor was embezzling money from Homebody, so he blackmailed him to use his computer and send indecent emails to Blake, signing himself as "Giovanni". Blake changed her email address six times but to no avail. When the emails turned into phone calls, she moved, but Lowery always managed to get to her. Eventually, he was released from prison and found work as a nightclub doorman in New York City, before being again arrested for assaulting a woman. At Rikers, he discovered Blake's newest home address through voters' lists.
Desperate for her situation and the NYPD's apparent inability to help her, Andrea simulated an assault to draw attention to her problem. Detectives Briscoe and Curtis briefly considered Lowery as a suspect, but they erroneously concluded the stalker was another man, Louis Dutton, and eventually found out Blake had simulated the assault. They also told her she had nothing more to worry about. However, she was brutally attacked and stabbed to death in her home shortly thereafter. Suspicion immediately fell upon Lowery, since Blake had identified him during a 911 call and Dutton was in prison at the time. Despite this, the telephone recording was barred from court due to Blake's previous simulation. Feeling guilty, Briscoe offered EADA McCoy to perjure himself in court and claim he still suspected Lowery was involved in the first assault from the beginning, despite the investigative report concluding it was a simulation. Curtis refused to confirm Briscoe's version, but Lowery was nonetheless convicted of second-degree murder and attempted murder. McCoy later claimed he would have sought life imprisonment without parole. (L&O: "Stalker")