OXNARD : Man Gets 61 Years to Life Under ‘3 Strikes’

An Oxnard man who has been convicted twice under the “three strikes and you’re out” law since it went into effect 16 months ago saw his prison sentence jump Thursday to 61 years to life, meaning he almost certainly will never be a free man again.

Roosevelt C. McCowan, 53, spoke quietly to his attorney as Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch said he had no choice but to sentence the career criminal to 25 years to life in prison for stealing 18 bottles of cologne from an Oxnard drugstore.

The sentence imposed by Storch will be added to a 36-years-to-life term McCowan received last month for attempting to sodomize his jail cellmate while awaiting sentencing on the theft case. Storch said he would have preferred to see the two sentences served concurrently, instead of one after the other as the law requires.

McCowan’s criminal career stretches back 32 years and includes more than half a dozen felony convictions, including burglary, robbery and assault with intent to commit murder.

It was the day after the implementation of the three strikes law--which mandates a sentence of 25 years to life for criminals who have two prior felonies--that McCowan stole the cologne from the Sav-On on Ventura Road in Oxnard.

Prosecutors at first were unaware of McCowan’s criminal history and allowed him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of petty theft. Once the prior convictions came to light, McCowan became the first Ventura County defendant to be charged under the three strikes law and he was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea.

The case went to trial, and McCowan sexually assaulted his cellmate two days after a jury convicted him of stealing the cologne.