Defendant in death penalty case has court outburst
A former prison guard charged with killing two Tennessee postal workers was physically restrained and removed from the courtroom after an outburst during a federal hearing Monday.
Chastain Montgomery became upset during his mother's testimony in a court hearing in Memphis to determine whether he is eligible for the death penalty if convicted in the October 2010 shootings of Paula Robinson and Judy Spray during a robbery at a small-town post office.
Defense attorney Michael Scholl said Montgomery abruptly stood up and began to say something before he was grabbed by U.S. marshals and forced into a room adjacent to the courtroom. Montgomery was shackled at the hands and legs, and a marshal was sitting behind him, but he still managed to stand up from his chair behind the large desk he shares with defense attorneys.
Montgomery's mother Lois was taken to the witness room after the outburst, and Senior U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla stopped the hearing. McCalla later returned and told Montgomery that while he understood that watching his ill mother testify was difficult, a second incident could result in his exclusion from the hearing.
"That is not something I'm going to do unless it's absolutely necessary," McCalla said.
The judge ordered Montgomery to tell his lawyers the next time he feels upset. Montgomery nodded, then softly said 'Yes," when asked by the judge if he understood the consequences of a second outburst.
McCalla and Scholl noted Montgomery had never misbehaved in more than two years of court proceedings. However, prosecutors have accused him of planning to escape from custody by attacking a U.S. marshal with a "shank."
Montgomery's mother was testifying in the hearing to determine if her son would be eligible to face the death penalty if convicted. Defense attorneys are trying to prove that Montgomery, 49, is intellectually disabled and, under federal law, not eligible for the death penalty.
The hearing is set to continue Tuesday, with Montgomery's mother taking the stand again.
Robinson and Spray were working in the post office in the rural West Tennessee town of Henning when they were shot multiple times. Prosecutors say Montgomery and his 18-year-old son, Chastain Montgomery Jr., shot the women after robbing the post office of $63. The younger Montgomery was killed in a shootout with police four months later.
Montgomery has pleaded not guilty to two counts of killing a federal employee while committing a robbery and other charges. No trial date has been set.
U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton III said in March that the federal government plans to seek the death penalty against Montgomery. Executions of federal inmates are rare — only three men have been executed under the federal death penalty since 1963.
A ruling by U.S. Senior District Judge Jon McCalla that Montgomery is intellectually disabled would be a major blow to the government's case.
Earlier Monday, psychologist Mark Siegert testified that intelligence tests taken by Montgomery over a 35-year span show he has mild intellectual disability.
Siegert studied a large number of documents compiled by other doctors who have examined Montgomery, including an IQ test given to him when he was 14 and another administered last year. Siegert also gave Montgomery a third IQ test this past May.
Montgomery's IQ on all three tests was below 70, considered the general threshold for an intellectually or mentally disabled person, Siegert said. Such low IQ test scores over a 35-year period is "tremendous evidence" that someone is intellectually disabled, he said.
"He is in the mild range of intellectual disability," Siegert said.
In court filings, prosecutors argue that a defendant cannot be found to be mentally disabled on IQ scores alone and the claim that Montgomery falls into that small category should be dismissed.
In cross examination, prosecutor Lorraine Craig challenged an assertion made by Siegert that the IQ test results from the examination Montgomery took as a 14-year-old were not significantly influenced by his father's death months earlier. Montgomery was depressed and fighting in school in the months after his father died, Craig said.
Craig also questioned the reliability of the IQ test Montgomery took as a teen.
Montgomery was working as a corrections officer at a West Tennessee prison at the time of the post office shootings. After the killings, Montgomery and his son robbed at least two Tennessee banks before the younger Montgomery stole a truck and was killed in a shootout with police in Mason in February 2011, prosecutors allege.
The elder Montgomery was arrested when he showed up at his son's shooting scene in the getaway car used in the post office killings, investigators said.
Montgomery confessed to the shootings on video, according to authorities. The defense is challenging the confession, saying it was coerced by investigators.
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