A Manhattan judge tore into a wheelchair-bound creep who spent nearly three decades on the lam before he was nabbed for the slayings of a Harlem mother and daughter — ripping him for “not taking any responsibility” Thursday as the convicted killer whined he’ll die in prison.
Ailing ex-con Larry Atkinson, 67, predicted he has two years to live moments before Judge Althea Drysdale sentenced him to 40 years to life behind bars for the killings of Sarah Roberts, 57, and her developmentally disabled daughter Sharon, 23, who were found strangled to death inside NYCHA’s Grant Houses on Feb. 20, 1994.
“God be with them in heaven,” a slumping, cancer-stricken Atkinson, said of his two victims in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“God be with me as well. I don’t think I will get past two years,” the lowlife added in a hoarse whisper after briefly apologizing for the “loss of lives of the two people that day.”
But the judge was not swayed by his sudden apology.
“It’s clear to this court that the defendant has not taken any responsibility for his actions in this case despite the evidence of guilt,” Drysdale said in a fiery speech.
“This is the first time that I have heard you be somewhat remorseful and say I am so sorry.”
After he was found guilty of murder in October, the cold-blooded killer turned to the jury and seethed that “he was going to find them and find their families,” Manhattan District Attorney Megan Joy told the court.
Years earlier, a home health aide who was dating Atkinson and also taking care of the elder Roberts — who suffered from emphysema — discovered the mom and daughter dead, with the mom’s oxygen tube and a pair of leggings tied around Sharon’s neck, prosecutors said.
Police found no evidence of forced entry in the sixth-floor apartment after the aide called 911.
A cassette video recorder and several hundred dollars in cash were also stolen, according to officials.
Investigators finally cracked the case in 2023, using new DNA technology that linked a cigarette butt and fingernail clippings from the crime scene to Atkinson.
The mother and daughter were remembered by family as bringing “light and warmth into their lives” as they struggled for nearly 30 years searching for answers while living in the same housing complex where their kin were killed.
“They were vulnerable individuals,” Sheniqua Simon, granddaughter of Sarah Roberts, said in a heartbreaking victim impact statement.
“People who required care and protection. Instead, their lives were taken violently and senselessly.”
Atkinson, whose laundry list of convictions dates back to 1977, also attacked a 68-year-old woman in 2005 as she slept in her apartment — punching her and wrapping her neck with a pair of stockings before threatening her with a knife as she fought him off with a cane, according to prosecutors.
