Gary Lowry worked for more than 40 years as a dishwasher at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center, taking his lunch break to devour a cheeseburger almost every day in the Northwest Portland hospital’s cafeteria.
He led a modest life and saved his money. He built a nest egg of $426,000.
Then he visited a local H&R Block in spring 2019 to get help preparing his taxes and lost it all within three years.
Clinton James Wells, a receptionist at the office, stole Lowry’s personal information and drained Lowry’s bank account, prosecutors said.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez sentenced Wells, now 37, to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Lowry’s family learned of the fraud only after Lowry died of a stroke at age 71 in May 2022. Relatives cleaning out his apartment found stacks of unopened bank statements.
The family’s grief turned into a nightmare, said Lowry’s nephew, Jonathan Lowry, who traveled from his home in Texas to speak at Wells’ sentencing.
Wells had wiped out Gary Lowry’s bank account, leaving no money to pay his doctors, hospital or nursing home stays, overdue rent, utility bills or burial expenses, according to the family.
Wells admitted to investigators that he targeted Gary Lowry because he said it was clear Lowry had a “mental handicap” with significant confusion, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith D.M. Bateman.
Wells spent the money on himself, his house, clothes, hotels, flights, fancy vacations, Amazon purchases, Uber rides and Uber Eats orders, Bateman said.
Wells kept “taking and taking what wasn’t his to take,” said Jonathan Lowry, who pressed for the investigation and prosecution of Wells.
Not only did Wells steal from Gary Lowry, but he stole the inheritance due to Gary’s brother, Roger Lowry, Jonathan’s father.
“My father has been emotionally shattered and his trust in people has been destroyed,” Jonathan Lowry said. “I want to make sure Clinton James Wells knows the monetary and psychological loss he’s inflicted on our family,”
The nephew urged a long sentence to send a message that “preying on the vulnerable will not be tolerated.”
He described Gary Lowry, who was born in Walnut Grove, Missouri, as having high-functioning autism. He moved to Oregon, where an aunt and uncle lived, decades ago. He never bought a car and instead walked to his dishwashing job at the hospital from his apartment in Northwest Portland.
Wells started stealing money from him a day after Lowry showed up at a local H&R Block for tax preparation help, according to Bateman.
Wells transferred $300 from Lowry’s account to his own on March 14, 2019, and did it again the next day, Bateman said. He continued daily, sometimes on an hourly or minute-to-minute basis, she said.
He did it by using the personal banking information that Lowry had provided to H&R Block and creating a user profile for Lowry’s online debit card that he linked to his own emails and cellphone number, according to the prosecution.
Wells then proceeded to run through Lowry’s savings using Lowry’s U.S. Bank debit card and bank account.
Wells made a total of $426,481.14 in unauthorized purchases from March 2019 to April 2022.
He made 206 transfers to his Zelle account for $276,472, 293 Amazon purchases for $21,975, 513 Uber and Uber Eats purchases for $9,827, 34 purchases on Priceline.com for $6,324, six airfare purchases totaling $2,423, 82 other electronic transfers of $108,600 and eight other transfers of $856, according to court records.
Wells listed his job at H&R Block on his LinkedIn profile as a “client service representative” who logged “confidential data into the company computer system for management and processing.”
Bateman and Wells’ defense lawyer had jointly recommended a sentence of two years and 10 months for Wells, noting he had no prior criminal history.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Robert Hamilton said Wells cooperated with investigators, took responsibility and moved to resolve the case quickly.
“I am deeply apologetic,” Wells said, standing beside his lawyer, as his mother wiped away tears seated behind him in the public gallery.
Wells added that while he was extremely ashamed, his actions were “uncharacteristic” of him.
“Why didn’t you stop?” the judge asked him.
“I really do not have an answer,” Wells said. “I truly do not know.”
Hernandez responded by tacking on two months to the recommended sentence, saying Wells' response offered no guarantee that he wouldn’t steal again.
Not only did Wells violate the trust of a clearly vulnerable man, Wells “drained his bank account for a significant period of time … his total life savings,” Hernandez said.
The judge called Gary Lowry an “amazing individual,” considering the amount he saved from a dishwasher’s job.
Wells must turn himself in to start serving his sentence on April 24. He also was ordered to pay restitution for the full amount stolen.
Jonathan Lowry said the family received no money from either H&R Block or the bank for the theft. Wells was no longer at H&R Block when he was charged and the family hasn’t filed a civil suit, he said.
H&R Block couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
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