{"id":116970,"date":"2026-01-30T02:15:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116970\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T02:15:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:15:27","slug":"more-than-three-decades-later-convicted-killer-of-harlem-mother-and-daughter-sentenced-to-40-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116970\/","title":{"rendered":"More than three decades later, convicted killer of Harlem mother and daughter sentenced to 40 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than three decades after the long unsolved cold-blooded murders<\/a> of a Harlem mother and her daughter with special needs, their convicted killer was sentenced in Manhattan on Thursday to 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n

The steep term was handed down to Larry Atkinson, 67, following his October conviction at trial on two counts of second-degree murder for fatally strangling Sarah Roberts, 57, and her 25-year-old daughter Sharon inside their Grant Houses apartment on W. 125th St. on Feb. 20, 1994.<\/p>\n

In furious remarks, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Althea Drysdale said Atkinson had targeted two people deserving of great care and empathy and waited decades \u2014 until the day of his sentencing \u2014 to show remorse.<\/p>\n

\"LarryLarry Atkinson appears in court for sentencing for the murders of Sarah Roberts and her Sharon Thursday, January 29, 2026 in Manhattan, New York, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two victims of this case were members of an especially vulnerable population,\u201d Drysdale said, detailing the elder Roberts\u2019 lung problems and her daughter\u2019s special needs, which the judge noted would be diagnosed today as severe autism requiring \u201caround-the-clock\u201d care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear to this court that the defendant has not taken any responsibility for his actions,\u201d Drysdale later said. \u201cThis is the first time that I\u2019ve heard you be somewhat remorseful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two women were found dead by Atkinson\u2019s ex-girlfriend, a home health aide, in different bedrooms of the apartment<\/a>, both with defensive injuries indicating they desperately fought back against their assailant. Sharon was discovered with the tube from her mother\u2019s oxygen tank and leggings wrapped around her neck, jurors heard at trial.<\/p>\n

Sharon Roberts<\/p>\n

\"SharonSharon Roberts<\/p>\n

NYPD Detective Ryan Glas, who was just 10 when the women were killed, took the case on as his first with the department\u2019s cold case unit, he previously told the Daily News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Authorities identified Atkinson as a suspect in 2022<\/a> after the city medical examiner\u2019s office employed new technology that wasn\u2019t available in the 1990s to test DNA samples from the scene, and develop a profile for the Roberts\u2019 killer, which ultimately produced a hit in the state\u2019s database and matched with his DNA.<\/p>\n

In a victim impact statement Thursday, Sheniqua Simon, Sarah\u2019s granddaughter and Sharon\u2019s niece, said their tight-knit family never left the Grant Houses in all the years the slayings of their matriarch and her beloved daughter went unsolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving in that space has caused ongoing trauma, fear, hypervigilance and a deep loss of trust,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said the decades that had lapsed since their killings hadn\u2019t healed the family\u2019s grief, but instead prolonged it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were denied the opportunity to witness generations unfold, to offer love, wisdom and presence,\u201d she said. \u201cToday, I want to be clear: Time does not ease harm. The passage of years does not reduce accountability. Delayed justice still carries weight because the damage did not stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkinson\u2019s first trial ended in a mistrial because of his severe health issues. When he was convicted at the second in October, he lashed out at members of the jury, threatening to track them down and their families.<\/p>\n

He had racked up a significant criminal record in the years before \u2014and after \u2014 Sarah and Sharon\u2019s killings, including a 2005 assault on an elderly woman whose home he broke into, prosecutors noted Thursday.<\/p>\n

Requesting the judge impose at least 30 years, Assistant District Attorney Megan Joy underscored the brutality of the Roberts\u2019 murders, saying they were as senseless in nature as they were callous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were not easy or painless deaths,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was evidence of struggle with both women.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his statement to the court, Atkinson \u2014 whose lawyer said has been cut off by his wife and daughter \u2014 said he wished he could undo the harm caused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very, very sorry,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I could turn back the hands of time and do something better, I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a press release<\/a>, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg thanked the medical examiner, Glas and the original case detectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are resolute in our commitment to solving homicides and providing justice to victims and their families, no matter how long it takes,\u201d Bragg said in a statement. \u201cThanks to the skill of our prosecutors and the dogged work of our partners at OCME and the NYPD, there is finally closure for this horrific crime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than three decades after the long unsolved cold-blooded murders of a Harlem mother and her daughter with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[266,267,75,84,83,9,24,12,63],"class_list":["post-116970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}