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Thread: Chastain Montgomery, Sr. Pleads Guilty and Gets Life in Federal Prison in 2010 TN Post Office Killings

  1. #21
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    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.

    http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/se...se-in-memphis/
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  2. #22
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    Mother of man charged with killing 2 Tenn. postal workers said he was 'slow' as a child

    A former prison guard charged in the fatal shootings of two Tennessee postal workers struggled to learn simple tasks such as cleaning his room and getting dressed on his own as a child, his mother said during a federal court hearing Tuesday.

    Lois Montgomery testified in a hearing that will determine if her 49-year-old son, Chastain Montgomery, is eligible to face the death penalty if convicted at trial in the deaths of Paula Robinson and Judy Spray during a robbery at small-town post office in October 2010.

    Defense attorneys argue that Montgomery is intellectually disabled and, under federal law, ineligible for the death penalty. A psychologist testified Monday that three IQ tests show Montgomery has mild intellectual disability.

    Those claims are being challenged by federal prosecutors, who argue that a person cannot be found to be mentally disabled on IQ tests alone.

    Montgomery's mother first took the stand Monday, but her testimony was interrupted by an outburst by her son. Montgomery abruptly stood up and began to speak before being grabbed by U.S. marshals and forced into a room adjacent to the courtroom.

    Montgomery sat slumped in his chair during Tuesday's hearing, raising his head at times to look at his mother on the stand. He asked for a break when his mother began speaking about one night when he slept outside, on the ground, in the dead of winter, in the days after his father's death in January 1978.

    Lois Montgomery has an illness that affects her voice, making her speech labored and hoarse. She became emotional during parts of her testimony.

    She testified her son had trouble staying neat, tying his shoes and doing chores as a child, and he rarely spoke to people outside the family. He sometimes would hide in a closet in their home, she said.

    "He was slow," she said. "You would tell him several times how to do things but he had trouble catching on."

    Later, Lois Montgomery said her son went to a high school for slow learners. But he did attend college at the University of Tennessee-Martin and was able to hold jobs, including a long tenure at a West Tennessee prison, she said.

    Robinson and Spray were working in the Henning post office 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.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...fice-Shootings
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  3. #23
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    Jury will remain anonymous in Henning Post Office murder trial

    A federal judge said jurors in the murder trial of Chastain Montgomery, charged in two shooting deaths at the Henning Post Office, will remain anonymous.

    During a brief pretrial hearing Friday, U.S. Dist. Judge Jon McCalla also said he will announce his decision on whether to allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the Oct. 18, 2010 robberies and killings of a rural postal carrier and a postal clerk early next week. Defense attorneys Anne Tipton and Michael Scholl also have asked the judge to toss out their client’s videotaped confession.

    McCalla said regardless of how he rules, the trial will go forward as scheduled on July 7.

    On April 1, 100 potential jurors will be brought to the federal courthouse in Downtown Memphis and given what the judge called “extensive questionnaires.”

    The trial is expected to last a month.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...ng-post-trial/
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  4. #24
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    Judge: Confession In Post Office Murders Can Be Used

    By George Brown

    (Memphis) A Federal judge has ruled the confession of a man charged with killing two post office workers can be used in his trial.

    Judge Jon P. McCalla released his decision Thursday afternoon.

    At the end of January, McCalla ruled prosecutors may pursue the death penalty in their case against Chastain Montgomery because he is competent.

    Montgomery confessed that he and his son robbed the Henning Post Office in 2010 and killed two female employees.

    For months, the two eluded police, until Montgomery’s son was stopped for another crime.

    Officers say he opened fire on them and they shot and killed him.

    Montgomery was arrested when he came to the scene.

    Officers say the two had the same guns used in the Henning murder.

    Despite admitting to planning and carrying out the post office robbery that netted just $63, Montgomery’s attorney says his confession was coerced and he didn’t have a lawyer at that time.

    Judge McCalla says potential jurors will be brought in April 1st, with the case set to start April 7th.

    http://wreg.com/2014/02/06/judge-con...s-can-be-used/

  5. #25
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    Trial reset in post office slayings case

    MEMPHIS (AP) – A federal judge has reset the trial date for a former prison guard who will face the death penalty if convicted of killing two West Tennessee postal workers.

    U.S. Senior District Judge Jon P. McCalla issued an order moving Chastain Montgomery’s trial date from April 7 to June 9.

    Montgomery’s attorneys asked McCalla for the change because they needed more time to prepare for trial after McCalla ruled Jan. 28 that Montgomery is not mentally disabled and is eligible to face the death penalty. They also argued that several expert witnesses are unavailable to appear at an April trial.

    McCalla wrote he moved the trial date out of an “abundance of caution.”

    Montgomery is charged with shooting Paula Robinson and Judy Spray during a robbery of Henning’s post office in October 2010.

    http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20...sold-Tennessee
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #26
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    Change of Plea in Tennessee Post Office Shootings

    A former West Tennessee corrections officer who faces the federal death penalty if convicted on charges of fatally shooting two U.S. postal workers during a robbery plans to change his not guilty plea.

    The docket for U.S. Senior District Judge Jon P. McCalla shows a change of plea hearing has been scheduled Thursday afternoon for Chastain Montgomery.

    Montgomery was charged with shooting Paula Robinson and Judy Spray during a robbery of Henning's post office in October 2010. Henning is about 45 miles northeast of Memphis.

    Prosecutors say Montgomery and his 18-year-old son tried to rob the rural post office, but they became angry and began shooting after they realized it had just $63 to steal.

    Federal prosecutors said last year they would be seeking the death penalty against Montgomery because he has shown no remorse and is capable of "future dangerousness." It's possible that Montgomery could change his plea to guilty in return for a sentence of life in prison.

    Chastain Montgomery Jr. was killed in a shootout with police in Mason in February 2011 after the teen was caught driving a stolen truck. The elder Montgomery was arrested when he went to the crime scene in Mason in what authorities said was the getaway car in the post office shootings.

    In a videotaped interrogation, Montgomery said he became angry after realizing the post office had little cash and he shot Robinson, who was black. His son then shot Spray, who was white, Montgomery said.

    "I lost it, man," Chastain Montgomery Sr. told postal inspectors on Feb. 15, 2011. "I started shooting. I shot the black lady."

    Montgomery's defense challenged the confession, arguing that it was coerced by investigators and that his requests for a lawyer were ignored. McCalla ruled that the confession could be used at trial, which has been scheduled for June 9.

    McCalla also ruled that Montgomery is not mentally disabled and eligible to face the death penalty. Defense attorneys had argued that Montgomery is intellectually disabled and unfit to face the death penalty under the guidelines set forth by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

    Psychologists testified in a December hearing that three IQ tests Montgomery took as a child and adult showed he has a mild intellectual disability, with scores of less than 70.

    Prosecutors argued that Montgomery's IQ tests don't reflect that Montgomery was able to function in society, attend college and hold jobs, including a long tenure at a West Tennessee prison.

    In his ruling, McCalla said Montgomery does not suffer from the limitations required for a finding of intellectual disability. Those limitations include the diminished ability to understand and process information, communicate and control impulses.

    In the December hearing, which lasted several days, Montgomery had to be restrained twice due to outbursts in court. In one of the outbursts, he threatened to kill a witness who was testifying.

    Prosecutors also have accused him of making a knife-like weapon known as a "shank" and planning to escape jail by attacking a U.S. marshal with it.

    Montgomery also is charged with robbing two Middle Tennessee banks with his son after the post office shootings. Deputies found ammunition, a gun and cash stained with red dye in the younger Montgomery's backpack after the Mason shootout. Banks use exploding dye packs to mark stolen bills.

    A 9mm gun used by the son in his shootout with police matched the one used in the post office shootings, authorities said, A 40-caliber weapon recovered from the father's Chevrolet Impala matched the one used to shoot Robinson, authorities said.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/c...tings-23825774
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  7. #27
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    Chastain Montgomery admits to Henning Post Office killings, will avoid death penalty

    By Samantha Bryson

    United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee Edward Stanton, III announced the guilty plea entered by Chastain Montgomery, Sr. to seven federal crimes including the murder of two postal workers Paula Robinson and Judy Spray in Henning, Tn. Montgomery faces consecutive life sentences in prison. His guilty plea means he will not face the death penalty. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 12, 2014.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...t-office-case/

  8. #28
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    Killer of post office workers sentenced

    The man who shot and killed two post office employees has been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

    Chastain Montgomery did not take the stand during his sentencing.

    Montgomery and his son shot Paula Robinson and Judy Spray at the Henning Post Office in 2010 for $63.

    In May, Montgomery admitted his guilt as a part of a plea agreement, because he didn’t want to risk losing his life.

    Montgomery now avoids a trial and a possible death row sentence.

    He will serve life in prison, without any chance of early release.

    His son, Chastain Montgomery, Jr. was killed in a shootout with police after the murders.

    http://wreg.com/2014/08/12/post-offi...ler-sentenced/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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