Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg today announced the sentencing of LARRY ATKINSON, 67, to 40 years-to-life for strangling 57-year-old Sarah Roberts, who suffered from emphysema, and her 26-year-old daughter Sharon, who was disabled, in their Morningside Heights apartment in February 1994. Additional DNA testing performed in 2022 led to ATKINSON’s arrest in January 2023. He was convicted by a New York State Supreme Court jury on October 29, 2025, of two counts of Murder in the Second Degree.

“We are resolute in our commitment to solving homicides and providing justice to victims and their families, no matter how long it takes,” said District Attorney Bragg. “Thirty years after strangling Sarah Roberts and her daughter Sharon, Larry Atkinson stands convicted by a jury of two counts of murder and will serve decades in prison. Thanks 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.”

As proven at trial, on the evening of February 20, 1994, a home attendant – who was dating ATKINSON at the time – entered the Roberts’ apartment in NYCHA’s Grant Houses and discovered both women dead. Sharon was found with the tube from her mother’s oxygen tank and a pair of leggings tied around her neck. The Office of the Medical Examiner (“OCME”) later determined that both victims were killed by ligature strangulation.

In 2022, using technology unavailable at the time of the women’s deaths, OCME conducted additional testing on samples collected in 1994, and developed a DNA profile that matched ATKINSON’s in New York State’s database.

Assistant D.A.s Megan Joy and Katelyn Damanis handled the prosecution of this case under the supervision of Assistant D.A.s Coleen Balbert (Chief of the Forensic Sciences Unit) and Executive Assistant D.A. Lisa DelPizzo (Chief of the Trial Division). Assistant D.A.s Harrison Schweiloch (Deputy Chief of Trial Bureau 60) and Charles Whitt (Chief of Trial Bureau 60) assisted, as did DNA Specialist Christopher Kamnik. Former Assistant D.A. Brian Rodkey handled the indictment of the case.

District Attorney Bragg thanked OCME, as well as the NYPD’s Detective Ryan Glas, and retired, original case Detectives Teresa Jones and Carlos Diaz.

Defendant Information:

Larry Atkinson

New York, NY

Convicted:

• Murder in the Second Degree, a class A-I felony, two counts

Sentenced:

• 40 years-to-life

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