Comments: Chances of Lisa Montgomery Getting the Death Sentence.
Once again I have mined the comments section and dug up a wealth of information about the Lisa Montgomery case.
At this point, all eyes and ears are tuned in to ascertain if the prosecutors are going to go for the death penalty for Montgomery.
I’ve compiled some statements made by Todd P. Graves, the prosecutor in charge of the Mongtomery case. Below is a quote from his statement on the Larry King Live show, which aired 12/20/04-not long after the murder.
Here are the statements made by Todd P. Graves, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri
"Analysis of Murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett", aired 12/20/04.
KING: Is it your decision whether to ask for the death Penalty?
GRAVES: No, that's not my decision alone. That's something -- we have elaborate procedures. It's not something that's taken lightlney (ph) -- lightly. And in the Department of Justice, that is something that we will be. There's a deliberative process and that descision will be made. But we have a history of cases like this in this area. And it's not anything really --the case cetainly is unusual. But the nature of the charge isn't really anything out of the ordinary for us.
Graves also said in the same transcript the following:
KING: The average person would say, don't you think, Todd, this person's got to be a little nuts? So, how do you deal with that as a prosecutor -- mean, obviously, this can't be a normal act.
GRAVES: I'm not sure that any act of violence that results in a death would be considered a normal act.
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Below, more from Graves on the death penalty issue.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of death or life in prison. On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said the prosecutors have not made the decision whether to pursue the death penalty, but said the indictment makes execution a possibility.
"It'll take months to go through that process," Graves said. "That is a decision that will be made by the Department of Justice as a whole, and at the highest levels of the Department of Justice.... The nature of these charging documents is to protect our opportunity and our option to seek the death penalty."
By MATT KELSEY,newsroom@asde.net
From the same article:
On Thursday Graves would not say whether the rope or the kitchen knife would be used as evidence in the case against Montgomery. He also would not say whether Montgomery brought the rope and knife with her, or if they were items found at Stinnett's home. But he did point out the section of the indictment which said the crime was committed "after substantial planning and premeditation."
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And some more …
Lisa M. Montgomery, 36, of Melvern, Kan., didn't speak during the brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Maughmer, who asked U.S. Attorney Todd Graves if he planned to seek a death sentence.
"That is the direction we are going," Graves said.
By Matt Sedensky,The Associated Press
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Finally, Graves’ points to the manual
Below, a quote from the “Manual of Model Criminal Instructions”, which Todd Graves pointedly gave to the Grand Jury and told the media all about it.
The wording of that sentence in the indictment document is lifted directly from the "Manual of Model Criminal Instructions for the District Courts of the Eighth Circuit," which in section 12.07F says the death penalty can be used if the crime is committed in an "especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner."
The U.S. Attorney's office sent copies of the jury manual to media outlets on Thursday to point out the passage. The manual goes on to define heinous, cruel and depraved.
"Heinous," according to the manual, "means extremely wicked or shockingly evil, where the killing was accompanied by such additional acts of torture or serious physical abuse of the victim as to set it apart from other killings.
"'Cruel' means that the defendant intended to inflict a high degree of pain by torturing the victim in addition to killing the victim."
"'Depraved' means that the defendant relished the killing or showed indifference to the suffering to the victim, as evidenced by torture or serious physical abuse of the victim."
Among other things, the word "torture" could apply to the Montgomery case, since Stinnett may have still been alive when the baby was cut out of her. If Stinnett has already been killed, the murderer would have only had a few minutes to remove the baby before it died from a lack of oxygen, according to medical experts.
In describing "torture," the jury manual says "the victim must have been conscious of the abuse at the time it was inflicted, and the defendant must have specifically intended to inflict severe mental or physical pain or suffering upon the victim, in addition to the killing of the victim."
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U.S. Attorney Todd P. Graves, accompanied by Kevin Stafford, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI regional office, announced the indictment of Lisa Montgomery at a press conference Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005
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PDF file of indictment.
Link to DOJ web Site
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Thus the above collection of quotes and actions by Todd Graves would seem to indicate that the man intends to go after the death penalty for Montgomery.
Can he do it?
I have some thoughts on the matter and I am not so sure.
For now, on to more information culled from the comments.
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Below I’ve pasted the entire text from the article in the Kansas City Star. There’s a wealth of insightful information on Lisa Montgomery. Apologies to many who may have already read this a million times. I thought it should part of the official record. Heh, such as it is on this humble Blog.
MOTHER AND SISTERS DESCRIBE TROUBLED LIFE OF MURDER SUSPECT
Montgomery's family saw peril approach
By KAREN DILLON and KEVIN MURPHY The Kansas City Star
The congratulations caught Judy Shaughnessy by surprise: She was a
grandmother again.
Her daughter, Lisa Montgomery, had left the courthouse in Lyndon, Kan., a
few minutes earlier after proudly showing off a day-old infant, an
acquaintance told Judy.
Judy knew better.
"I just said, 'Yeah, right, she either stole it or bought it,'#8194;" Judy
recalled Tuesday.
Lisa had been incapable of having children since a 1990 operation, but she
fooled her husband, his parents and the whole community, Judy said.
"I tried to tell them and tell them, but nobody listened," she recalled.
Even as Judy was hearing about the newborn, the FBI was waiting for Lisa to
arrive at home in Melvern, Kan., to arrest her on a charge of killing a
Missouri woman and cutting her 8-month fetus from the womb.
Montgomery's two sisters, Patty Hedberg and Jerri Kleiner, said they also
tried to warn the family about her history of five faked pregnancies.
"Nobody believed us; nobody wanted to believe us," Patty said.
In their first media interviews, Lisa's sisters and mother talked about the
woman who authorities say wanted a baby so badly she killed to get one.
They described her as a smart loner who even as a child spun a lot of tales
that often angered her family.
The family had much to overcome, including poverty and alcohol. But Lisa
had an additional hurdle: As a teenager, she was sexually abused, her
mother said.
Twenty years later, Lisa Montgomery, 36, stands accused of a crime that has
received worldwide notoriety.
The FBI said in an affidavit that she traveled to the home of Bobbie Jo
Stinnett in Skidmore, Mo., on Dec. 16, strangled her and kidnapped her
baby. After confessing, she was charged with kidnapping resulting in death
and faces life in prison or the death penalty. Lisa has not entered a plea
to the charge.
"There is a difference between evil and insane, and I think she's evil,"
said Jerri, who believed her sister had become "dangerous" in her quest to
have a newborn.
There has been recent acrimony between Lisa and her mother and Patty. Last
year, Lisa sought a restraining order to keep them from seeing her children
but later dropped that effort. They contend she filed the order to stop
them from telling people she was faking pregnancies.
Patty and Jerri, who are half sisters, agreed to exclusive interviews with
The Kansas City Star if only their maiden names were used, because they
want to respect the privacy of their children.
One of Lisa's public defenders, David Owen, said Friday that he had no
comment on her background or the charges and that she would be unavailable
for an interview.
Stinnett's mother, Becky Harper, tearfully said Friday that she wished
someone would have listened to warnings about Lisa.
"Let's just don't let her get off with being insane, OK, because the woman
is not," said Harper, who discovered her daughter's body.
Lisa's husband, Kevin Montgomery, declined to be interviewed about whether
he had been told about her fake pregnancies. Last month, he told The Star
that he was convinced that she was pregnant and had delivered their baby.
"I held that baby proudly," he said.
Lisa doesn't have many defenders, but the pastor of the church the
Montgomerys attended in Melvern said she obviously was burdened with a
troubled background and personality.
"I know enough to know I do sympathize with her to some degree," said the
Rev. Mike Wheatly of the First Church of God.
A different child
She was born Lisa Marie Hedberg in Washington state. Soon after, she and
her mother moved to Topeka, where her sister Patty was born. Lisa and Patty
were toddlers when their parents split up, and they have had no contact
with their father, Patty said.
But some of the first stories Lisa would make up were about her father,
that he died in Vietnam or that something else befell him, Patty said.
From the beginning, Lisa was different, Patty said. She never did the
things many girls do, such as playing with dolls, but she was obsessed with
learning.
"I always said the house could burn down, and she wouldn't even smell the
smoke, she was so engrossed in books," her mother said.
By the time Lisa was 6 her mother had married Jack Kleiner, who had five
children of his own, and the family was living in Oklahoma. Her mother had
three children with Kleiner.
Beginning in grade school, Lisa played the violin and then the French horn.
In high school she played the mellophone in the marching band.
She made first chair with ease and was "very intellectual," her sisters
said.
"Everything Lisa did she was good at," Patty said. "She didn't have to
try."
Life turns sour
Lisa's life might have been very different.
In the spring of 1984, her grades were good, and she had plans for college.
The 16-year-old sophomore had been accepted at a summer college preparatory
program at Rogers State University in Claremore, Okla.
But her life was about to unravel, according to family members.
Kleiner was sexually abusing Lisa, her mother said in court records when
she filed for divorce that summer.
She and the children left Kleiner, and she took Lisa to counseling. But
Lisa denied she'd had sex with her stepfather, the sisters said.
In a telephone interview from his home in Manhattan, Kan., Jack Kleiner
said that the story had been concocted to support his wife's divorce case
and that he was never found guilty of anything.
"I never molested her in any way, shape or form," Kleiner said, and he
denied ever being an alcoholic, as Judy contended in the divorce.
Kleiner said he was not to blame for problems Lisa had in her life. "She
screwed up her life after she left me, not while I was there, I guarantee."
Kleiner said he provided the family a good life, although after the divorce
he would be sentenced to jail at least twice for failing to pay child
support, according to court records.
The family tried to cling to shreds of normalcy even as it went on welfare.
That tumultuous summer of 1984 also had a tranquil side - picnics, trips to
the lake, to a wedding, to go fishing, to get ice cream.
At Sperry High School, Lisa was in band, a class play, the pep club and
student council. The family moved to nearby Cleveland, Okla., where she
graduated in 1986 with mostly A's and B's, a school official said.
By 1986, Lisa's mother had married Richard Boman, a former mayor and police
chief of Sperry and retired Navy sailor. Richard Boman's son, Carl Boman,
had returned from the Navy and was dating Lisa.
Lisa was ready to join the Air Force as a way to pay for college when she
learned she was pregnant, her mother said. She and Carl married in August
1986, and her dreams of college died.
Her first marriage
As an adult, Lisa fabricated five pregnancies and other yarns about her
children, about boyfriends and about sleeping with people, causing
continuing rifts in her extended family, her relatives said.
"She made up stories to upset people and to get crap stirred up so there
was controversy," Patty said. "She was always seeking attention." Her
mother said Lisa became more cunning and manipulative after she started
having children.
Lisa had four children in a little more than three years. After her fourth
child in 1990, Lisa got a tubal ligation, rendering her sterile, said Carl
Boman and her sisters. Her mother was at the hospital when the procedure
was done.
Carl Boman worked many hours to make ends meet, and his wife stayed home to
take care of the children and the house.
But the house was filthy and roach-infested, her sisters said.
One time, her mother said, she visited the house while Lisa was making
lunch for the children. She pulled a dish of scalloped potatoes from the
oven, stuck in a fork, plunked it on the floor and said, "Here, kids,
here's your lunch," her mother recalled.
Often Lisa could be found lying on the couch reading. She favored fiction,
such as Stephen King novels, Carl Boman said.
Carl could not make Lisa happy, his father said.
"They fought all the time," Richard Boman said.
Lisa also was having affairs, Carl Boman said. Sometimes she would leave
the family for days or weeks, and she once showed up at her husband's
family reunion with another man, her mother said.
Carl Boman filed for divorce in October 1993 and moved to a new job in
Springdale, Ark. But Lisa followed him, and eight months later they
remarried in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,
which they had attended as part of an effort to rebuild their relationship.
In Arkansas, she told her family she was pregnant with twins, but it was
untrue, her sisters said.
The couple and their four children moved to Deming, N.M., where Richard
Boman had bought a double-wide trailer, said Bill Boomhower. Boomhower
owned a restaurant and gave Carl Boman a job.
Lisa had difficulty keeping the children clean, Judy and Boomhower said. At
their elementary school, the teachers would wash the children's hair, bathe
them and put clean clothes on them, Boomhower said.
Richard Boman said Lisa and her mother shared an affection for rural life.
"They both liked animals, especially goats and dogs and chickens," Boman
said.
But Boomhower said Lisa clearly seemed unhappy with her life.
"You look back and it's not really a bad, bad family," Boomhower said.
"There were a lot of underlying things going on that nobody knew about."
Divorce, remarriage
In 1998 the marriage ended for good. Carl Boman went to Bartlesville,
Okla., and Lisa returned to Kansas with her mother. Judy and Richard Boman
had divorced.
After meeting Kevin Montgomery in 1999, Lisa fabricated two pregnancies,
relatives said.
First, she told Montgomery she was pregnant, and he gave her $200 or $300
for an abortion, her sisters said.
Her sisters also said that Lisa told Montgomery she had gotten pregnant as
a teenager. She claimed she initially had been told the baby died during
delivery. But later she learned that the baby was put up for adoption, and
she had found the adoptive parents. Her daughter's name was Sarah.
"It was all made up," Patty said.
In March 2000, Lisa married Montgomery, who had three children from a
previous marriage.
Over the past six years, Lisa worked as a ticket agent at Greyhound Bus
Lines in Topeka; at a Wendy's restaurant in Lebo, Kan.; at a Casey's store
in Lyndon, Kan.; and in security in Pauline, Kan., all small towns south of
Topeka.
Meanwhile, Lisa became involved in the Melvern community.
She was involved in 4-H and Little League with the children. She sewed
pioneer-style clothing for her daughters and nieces and took them to an
annual apple festival. She made goat cheese. She attended school plays.
Baby obsession
By 2002 and 2003, Lisa's desire for a newborn was becoming uncontrollable,
her mother and sisters said.
Carl Boman was behind on child support payments, and she told him that if
he didn't pay up, he would not be allowed to see the children.
She told him she needed the money because she wanted to buy a baby, said
James Campbell, Carl Boman's attorney. Lisa estimated the cost to buy a
baby would be about $45,000.
But the Bomans did not have that kind of money, Campbell said.
A custody battle in fall 2003 over Lisa's newborn nephew revealed a fourth
phantom pregnancy.
The state had taken custody of her brother Teddy Kleiner's newborn son
after he was jailed on drug charges.
Lisa's mother was trying to get custody of the boy, who had been placed
with foster parents, but Lisa wanted the child, too, her sisters said. At
the hearings, Lisa testified she was pregnant, several people said.
But later, she testified she had miscarried and donated the fetus to
science, according to family members who attended the hearing.
In December 2003, Patty went to her sister's home, confronted Kevin
Montgomery and told him his wife could not be pregnant because she had had
a tubal ligation in 1990. Lisa told her to leave and never come back, Patty
said.
About a week later, Jerri and their mother went to the home of Kevin
Montgomery's parents, Roger and Joy Montgomery.
"My mom told them everything," Jerri said. She warned that Lisa "was
fooling you guys."
They also strongly urged Lisa to tell her husband the truth, they said.
"You cannot keep lying to the man; he doesn't deserve it," Judy recalled
telling Lisa. "She ignored everything I said."
While Roger Montgomery said he was advised by his lawyer not to comment on
whether he and his wife had been warned about Lisa, he voiced doubt about
the credibility of Lisa's sisters and mother. His lawyer did not return
calls.
To stop her family from spreading the accusations, Lisa sought restraining
orders against her mother and Patty, Judy and Patty said. Those orders were
later dismissed by a judge at Lisa's request, according to court records.
Judy said she spoke to some attorneys about having Lisa committed to a
psychiatric institution but was told that would be unlikely unless Lisa
harmed herself or someone else.
Lisa began negotiating with a pregnant acquaintance to buy her baby once it
was born, but the woman eventually refused, Lisa's sisters said.
Pressure mounts
Last summer, Lisa announced to her family and friends she was pregnant
again.
In November, the sisters and their mother learned that Lisa had bought a
home birth kit, used by midwives to deliver babies.
Jerri feared that her sister would finally do something drastic to get a
baby.
On Dec. 10, Carl Boman filed for custody of the four children he had with
Lisa. Boman said in an interview he had planned to use Lisa's phantom
pregnancy as a way to show she was mentally unfit to keep the children.
While it is unclear whether that was the last straw for Lisa, her mother
said her daughter was determined to prove her truthfulness.
"All her lies were catching up with her," Judy said. "I think the
desperation got to her."
On Dec. 17 about 4 p.m., after returning home, Judy got a call from a niece
in Texas who asked if it was true that Lisa had a baby. The mother said
yes. The niece then asked if the baby was a girl. Yes.
Then the niece told her about an Amber Alert involving the stolen baby from
Skidmore.
Judy called Jerri and asked her to check out the kidnapping and homicide
story on the Internet. As Jerri read over the news stories, the horrible
thought that it might be Lisa washed over her.
She turned on the TV and saw that Lisa had just been arrested.
The family gathered to watch the news.
"We just sat here shocked and astonished," Patty said.
While Lisa's family believes she was sane when she allegedly stole the
baby, Judy said she feels for her daughter.
"I love her with all my heart," Judy said. But, she added, "Justice has to
be served. I have to leave it up to God."
To reach Karen Dillon,
call (816) 234-4430 or send e-mail to kdillon@kcstar.com.
To reach Kevin Murphy,
call (816) 234-4464 or send e-mail to kmurphy@kcstar.com.
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Below, a quote from the baby’s father, Jeb Stinnett. It’s an innocuous quote more notable by the fact that he said anything at all. Bets are on that this guy has a book contract already signed. With orders to lay low with interviews. Remember how little we saw of Amber Frey until her book came out?
"The most important thing right now is my daughter," Stinnett told the Post. "A lot of people set too high expectations these days. I just want her to be normal."
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Finally, a few tidbits.
URL for the Rat Terrier Newsgroup where it all began.
Jason Dawson-the man who introduced "Darlene Fischer" to Bobbie Jo Stinnett
