Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Gorgeous brainiac, 31, 'frog-marched' out of oyster bar, shot dead in ritzy Mountain Brook

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Gorgeous brainiac, 31, 'frog-marched' out of oyster bar, shot dead in ritzy Mountain Brook · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful thirty one year
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: old Neeliewad is dead. But why Crime Stories with Nancy
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Grace Take a listen to this. Everyone I've heard from
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: is shocked to learn that it was her body found
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  Speaker 1: here in a parking lot near Mountain Brook High School.
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  Speaker 1: They tell me she was loved by everyone. However, the
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  Speaker 1: past year had been especially rocky for Montgomery. In February,
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  Speaker 1: she was involved in what was reported as an argument
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: over a handgun with her husband, who at the time
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  Speaker 1: was a Hoover police officer, that resulted in a gunshot
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  Speaker 1: wound to her arm. The next month, she placed her
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  Speaker 1: a straining order against him, and today I learned she
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  Speaker 1: had just gotten over that gunshot wound to her arm
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  Speaker 1: last month. I spoke with the coroner today. He isn't
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  Speaker 1: releasing the cause of death at this time. I also
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  Speaker 1: spoke with the Jefferson County District Attorney. He tells me
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  Speaker 1: no formal charges have been filed now. Tommy Spina, the
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  Speaker 1: suspects attorney, tells me he's the one who worked out
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  Speaker 1: a deal to surrender his client with police today. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: I don't quite understand that you've got a dead thirty
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  Speaker 1: one year old Megan Montgomery by gunshot wound but no
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  Speaker 1: charges filed. Again, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: in series XM one eleven. We want answers joining me.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Jesse Evans, forming Deputy Chief Assistant DA joining us out
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: of Cobb County. He's the author of Laws of Leadership
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and you can find him at Jesse dot Evans thirty one.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Karen Stark, renowned New York psychologists, joining us from Manhattan.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: You can find her at Karen Stark dot com. With
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: a see doctor Kendall Crowns, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Travis County, Texas.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: That's Austin and former police chief in John's Creek. Chris
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  Speaker 1: Buyers now at Chris Buyer's Investigations and polygraph dot com.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: But first to Nicole parton Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Nicole, it seems to never end. But what
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  Speaker 1: I want to ask about first is how did Megan Montgomery,
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  Speaker 1: beautiful young woman end up getting shot in the arm. Nancy,
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  Speaker 1: this story so sad. It goes back to a fairytale beginning.
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  Speaker 1: Proposed to on the beach wedding of her dreams in
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  Speaker 1: New York and only wait a minute, wait a minute,
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  Speaker 1: I've seen that photo, Nicole Parton, Man, you really know
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  Speaker 1: how to tell a story, because I immediately remembered the
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  Speaker 1: photo of Megan getting engaged on the beach and she's
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  Speaker 1: holding up her hand showing off a beautiful, a big
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  Speaker 1: I remember it in detail because it struck me. A
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  Speaker 1: big round engagement ran a big round diamond with like
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  Speaker 1: pavey diamonds around it, just right beautiful. And she was
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  Speaker 1: so happy. Okay, sorry for that deviation, Go ahead, Nicole,
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  Speaker 1: so super happy they couldn't wait to get married. They
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  Speaker 1: head back home to Alabama from the beach, run to
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  Speaker 1: the courthouse, get married a few months later, her dream
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  Speaker 1: wedding in New York City. Only months after that, comes
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  Speaker 1: in and thirty one year old Megan has been shot
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  Speaker 1: in the arm, her bone shattered by her husband's pistol
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  Speaker 1: bullet entering in, exiting out, shattering her bone. Fourteen pins
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  Speaker 1: A plate put in her arm to recover. All of
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: this the first of many domestic problems. Okay, waite a minute,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and waite a minute. I need to go to I'm
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  Speaker 1: gonna I gotta go to a doctor on this. What
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  Speaker 1: is she saying, Doctor Kendall Crowns joining me, Deputy Chief
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Medical Examiner, Travis County, Texas. That's Austin, doctor Crowns. What
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  Speaker 1: does that mean? Fourteen pins in your arm? That can't
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  Speaker 1: be good? Now. What it is is when an arm
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  Speaker 1: is shattered like hers was with the gunshot wound her humorus,
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  Speaker 1: which is the arm. The bone in your arm was
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  Speaker 1: completely severed in half, and what they had to do
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  Speaker 1: was put a metal plate to bring the bones back
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  Speaker 1: together and then put screws actually into the bone to
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  Speaker 1: fix that place in that plate in place. So fourteen
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  Speaker 1: pins is fourteen screws holding that plate to keep her
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  Speaker 1: arm back together again so the arm won't grow back naturally.
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  Speaker 1: I agree it was. It was broken in the In
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  Speaker 1: the X rays that I saw, it was completely set
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  Speaker 1: in half. So your your bone might be able to
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  Speaker 1: kind of bring it back together, but structurally it wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: be sound and it would just rebreak. So by bringing
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  Speaker 1: it back together surgically and putting the pins in it
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  Speaker 1: will heal more properly. Trying to understand fourteen pins in
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  Speaker 1: your arm, what would she have gone through when that
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  Speaker 1: bullet shattered her arm. So what would have happened is
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  Speaker 1: it broke her arm and half basically, and she would
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  Speaker 1: have been unable to move it. She would have been
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  Speaker 1: in intense pain. And then her arm would just kind
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  Speaker 1: of be sitting there flopping because the muscles wouldn't be
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  Speaker 1: attaching correctly and things of that nature, so she wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: really be able to move it right and she would
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  Speaker 1: be really in a lot of pain. To you, Nicole
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  Speaker 1: apart and what were you saying? I interrupted right at
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  Speaker 1: the fourteen pins in her arm. But that was the beginning.
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  Speaker 1: That was the beginning of the abuse that was at
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  Speaker 1: least documented, and things went down from there. That argument
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  Speaker 1: apparently stemming over allegations that he became jealous of something.
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  Speaker 1: His story, her story, her saying to the doctor he
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  Speaker 1: shot me, him saying, I thought I was grabbing her
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  Speaker 1: cell phone. I didn't realize there was a gun involved. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: hold on, just a moment. So he says he was
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  Speaker 1: grabbing a cell phone right and didn't know it was
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  Speaker 1: a gun, right, Okay. Let me go to Jesse Evans,
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  Speaker 1: former Deputy Chief Assistant DA in Cobb County in Major
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  Speaker 1: Crimes homicide coal case Unit Chief. That's not easy. Author
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  Speaker 1: of Laws of Leadership, Jesse Evans, thank you so much
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: for being with us. Did you just hear that he
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: told the arriving officers Jesse that he thought it was
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  Speaker 1: a cell phone, but oh, it was a gun and
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  Speaker 1: he pulled the trigger. Help me. Makes no sense to
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  Speaker 1: me for as a prosecutor. That's a pretty shocking statement
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  Speaker 1: to responding officers. And um, you know, listen, we know
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  Speaker 1: that defendants are going to make statements that are self
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  Speaker 1: serving in nature. But it's our job as prosecutors to
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  Speaker 1: sort of weed through those things. Uh. You know, she
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  Speaker 1: made a statement to doctors that he shot me. Um,
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  Speaker 1: so it's pretty shocking that he would make a statement
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  Speaker 1: like that, an assertion that clearly is not borne out
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  Speaker 1: by the evidence. And Jesse, that's something I would look
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  Speaker 1: forward to. Yes, man, Jesse, I'm not a judge. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: you don't have to talk to me like your illegal brief. Jesse.
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  Speaker 1: He's lying, he's lying, Jesse. Absolutely, a D a M
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  Speaker 1: and cell phone, Like this is a cell phone. It's
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  Speaker 1: not a gun. There's not a trigger, a pull. That's
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  Speaker 1: total b s. Absolutely, it's a lie, Jesse. It's a
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  Speaker 1: total lie and one that we as prosecutors would look
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  Speaker 1: forward to meeting in court. We deal with those kind
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  Speaker 1: of lines all the time, and uh, it's one that
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  Speaker 1: you just look to sink ut too when you get
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  Speaker 1: to the courtroom. And now she's dead. Now she's dead.
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  Speaker 1: And let me go back to you, Nicole Parton, can
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  Speaker 1: you tell the rest of the staff who answered that call?
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  Speaker 1: Who answered the nine one one call? His coworkers. He
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  Speaker 1: was part of the Hoover County Police Department, so these
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  Speaker 1: people knew him. He knew this police department well, and
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  Speaker 1: they took the call, they came out, and coincidentally, there
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  Speaker 1: were no charges filed against him, even though she suffered
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  Speaker 1: this horrific gunshot wound to the arm. And let me
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: ask you this, Nicole Parton, what if any injuries did
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  Speaker 1: he suffer. He had no injuries in this particular incident.
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  Speaker 1: There was nothing at all wrong with him. She suffered
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  Speaker 1: all of the abuse from this gentleman. He did not
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  Speaker 1: suffer anything from this incident. Also, I would just like
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  Speaker 1: to point out that she has the gunshot under her arm.
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  Speaker 1: If she's struggling over a gun, you would think it
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  Speaker 1: would be not in her arm. It's almost like the
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  Speaker 1: gun would have had to have been pointed backwards to
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  Speaker 1: have gotten the injury she got. You know what, Doctor
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Kendall Crowns, there you go talking sense again. That's not
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  Speaker 1: fitting into the defendant's scenario. Crime stories with Nancy Grace, Guys,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: we are talking about a really gorgeous young girl, thirty
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  Speaker 1: one year old Mega Montgomery now did and it all
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  Speaker 1: started with a NIM one one call where she has
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  Speaker 1: shot her arm totally disabled, just shattered. She needed fourteen
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  Speaker 1: pins in it to get it back together, would never
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  Speaker 1: heal on its own. Yet, isn't it true? Nicole parton
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  Speaker 1: that somehow in that police report, wasn't she the one
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  Speaker 1: deemed to be the aggressor? Absolutely so. After statements were
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  Speaker 1: taken by both parties, the final conclusion was that it
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  Speaker 1: was kind of a mutual argument that the two had
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  Speaker 1: had and that she was the aggressor. She's five eight,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty five pounds. Jason McIntosh six four,
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty five pounds, But they say she's
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  Speaker 1: the aggressor and it's her fault that her arm is shattered. Okay.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Chris Buyers, former police chief John's Craig. Now at Chris
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  Speaker 1: Buyer's investigations in polygraph I want to just chew a
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  Speaker 1: nail in half right now, because those cops let this happen.
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  Speaker 1: She was no more the aggressor than the man in
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  Speaker 1: the moon and that scenario. And I'll tell you why.
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  Speaker 1: They said that, because he would lose his job on
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  Speaker 1: the force in law enforcement. It was deemed he had
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  Speaker 1: been the aggressor. So guarantee you he convinced her to
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  Speaker 1: lie so he could keep his job. Yeah, absolutely, he
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  Speaker 1: would have definitely lost his job. And what's even more
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  Speaker 1: confusing to me as I read about this, Hoover Police
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  Speaker 1: Department turned the case over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency,
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  Speaker 1: so basically they turned it over to the state so
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  Speaker 1: that there wouldn't be any of the things we're talking about,
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  Speaker 1: like they were covering for him. So clearly she had
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  Speaker 1: to have told them something to take the focus away
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  Speaker 1: from him being the aggressor in this, because you would
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  Speaker 1: hope that once it's turned over to the state, it's
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: not turned over to his colleagues, that a thorough, accurate
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  Speaker 1: investigation would be done. But clearly we see that that's
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  Speaker 1: not what happened. Not what happened at all. As a
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, Chief Buyers, if a cop is found
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  Speaker 1: to be guilty in a commission of a crime, it's over.
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  Speaker 1: Not only do they get fired, they lose whatever police
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  Speaker 1: they're gonna have. They're disgraced. Oh yeah, absolutely absolutely, and
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  Speaker 1: singers of doing internal affairs investigations and then become being
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  Speaker 1: a police chief. I mean that's you know, these are
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  Speaker 1: the things that take you out of the job. Once
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  Speaker 1: you get this, you're disgraced. You can never be certified again.
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  Speaker 1: So that's exactly what happened in this. I believe he
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  Speaker 1: convinced her to lot so he could keep his job.
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  Speaker 1: There's no coming back from that. And to you, Jesse Evans,
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  Speaker 1: there are very few things that I hate more than
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  Speaker 1: a dirty cop, because not only are they committing a crime,
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  Speaker 1: but they're ruining the justice system. They are disgracing Lady Justice.
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  Speaker 1: And I remember the first time it really hit me, Jesse.
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  Speaker 1: I had put together, along with Atlanta Vice, a case
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  Speaker 1: against a child prostitution ring and I worked so hard
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: on that case. The little girl, the main witness is
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: just thirteen, ran away the day before trial. I was
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  Speaker 1: out till five am in the morning and my car
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  Speaker 1: trying to find her. We found her by the way,
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  Speaker 1: and I worked very closely with three vice cops. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: every day in every flop house and drugged in stripper joint,
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  Speaker 1: you name it, trying to find these guys and find
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  Speaker 1: this girl. All right, the conviction happened fast forward. Jesse.
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  Speaker 1: You know a year I was in the DA's office working.
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  Speaker 1: I looked up. I was walking through I think the
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: records room, somebody that had a TV. I looked up
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and there was a sketch from a sketch artist in
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: federal court. You know, they're horrible. You can't tell who
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the sketches, They're always terrible. And I went, wow, that
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  Speaker 1: looks just like the investigator, the detective on the child
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  Speaker 1: prostitution ring. Well, then the Caroin came up on the
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: bottom third. It was him and as two buddies. The
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: three the four of us said were in that case.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: They had been Jesse going into dopers homes and stealing
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: their plasma TV, their dope, ropes, their goal chains, their money,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: their dope, stealing it during these stings. And they finally
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: it was so bad. The dopers complained to the fans
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: that's bad. And the fans did a sting on them
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: and caught them on video. I believe robbing dopers. I
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: was stunned these three vice cops. I thought I knew
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  Speaker 1: so well. We spent day after day after day together
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: working the case out on the street, and they were
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: dirty and I didn't even pick up on it. Nancy,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: nother makes me more angry than dirty cop. I couldn't
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: agree with you more. You hit the nail on the head.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: We entrust our law enforcement officers to protect us. They're
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: supposed to be protecting us in our homes, in our community.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I think the only thing that makes me more angry
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: than a dirty cop is a dirty, abusive cop. And
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: this is just a shocking breakdown that you have in
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: this particular case, and it was totally prevatible. Well, everybody,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I hope you're sitting down. I'm gonna play for you
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: some video from our friend Kate Snow and you're gonna hear.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: You're gonna hear the defendant in this case threatening his wife.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut. Number five. Megan's marriage
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: to former police officer Jason McIntosh was violent. Megan recorded
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: him threatening her. She knew if she left she would
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: be killed. That's why she didn't leave. One night in
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: February twenty nineteen, Suzanne says Megan took her husband's gun
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: to protect herself when she heard him coming towards her.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: She went towards the door with the gun to keep
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: him away, and she said, the next thing, I know
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: him on the floor and I'm shot. Megan's arm was shattered.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: The police who responded McIntosh's colleagues on the local force,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: so Alabama's state Law Enforcement Agency took over, seizing the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: gun as evidence. We win got through straining order. She
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: got through straining order, but after Megan moved into her
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: own apartment later in twenty nineteen, the Alabama Law Enforcement
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Agency returned Jason McIntosh's gun to him. Did you hear
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: what he was saying to her? And I'm quoting him?
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Laugh now, bitch, and I take that first cut off
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: your cheek. I don't know if you heard that. Um,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: take a listen now to Andrew john Y our friends
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: at ABCR cut ten. She also included this video of
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: her husband, Jason McIntosh making threats with a gun. Ever,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: what always McIntosh's attorney, Tommy Spina, says he range for
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Macintosh to surrender to Mountain Brooke police Monday. If you
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: were listening carefully, what he is saying is and there's
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: actual video of this. Stop stop listen to me. Don't
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: ever play games with me, okay, because I will always win.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And he points the gun at her and says, because
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: I don't give a either A or the F word.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, Karen's tark. This woman knows he will beat her,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and he's threatening to cut her face and pointing a
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: gun at her and saying, don't play games with me
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: because I'll always win. And he points the gun at her,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and they give the gun back to him. It's outrageous, Nancy.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: It is so outrageous because they were club police for clubs.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: There were a number of incidents of domestic violence where
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: it at someone I was straining. She moved into her
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: own apartment. She posted online things that he had sensed
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: her text messages which said this is what happens when
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: you're an abusive relationship. She was really trying to get
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: her life back together and he had to control her.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: And how in the world anybody would give a gun
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: back when there's a restraining order protection is postly protecting her.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: It's the most outrageous thing. She was a courageous woman
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: who tried. Really, you don't hear a lot of abuse
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: situations where the person is able to move out and
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: try and start their life again, but she did try.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we were talking about
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the gunshow death of a beautiful thirty one year old woman.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: They could totally have been avoided had the Hoover Law
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: enforcement brain trust not decided to return the gun to
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: a domestic terrorist beating and threatening his own wife. It's
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: even caught on video. He's already shot her once in
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the arm. Was that not enough warning? Take a listen
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: to our cut eight. This is Bryan Douglas w VTM,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: NBC thirteen. Chief Ted Smith says she was shot in
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the head and in the back. He also says evidence
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: shows she was most likely shot in the parking lot
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: of the Mountain Brook Athletic Complex over the weekend. Her
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: body found later by an officer patrolling courtyard. Oysterbar is
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: one of the last places Montgomery was seen. Investigators say
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: witnesses with Montgomery saw Macintosh approach her table before voluntarily
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: leaving with him. I could confirm that we had video
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: from courtyard to it that shows mister McIntosh come into
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the facility, go up to a table with multiple people
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: at it, including miss Montgomery, leaned down some type of
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: exchange with her, some type of exchange with some of
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the other people at the table. If found guilty, Macintosh
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: could face the death penalty. Join I Mean Nicole parton
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Nicole. What exactly happened
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the night that Megan mcgomery was murdered? So Megan was
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: with about six friends at a local oyster bar there.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Um they were out having dinner celebrating the winning football team,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and he shows up. Jason McIntosh shows up at the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: oyster bar. He walks in, He places one hand behind
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: her neck, one hand on her shoulder. Some of the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: friends there began to say, you know, who are you?
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: What's going on? And he says, this is my wife.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I'm her husband and she needs to come with me.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: He walks her out of the restaurant. Surveillance shows that
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: he's the last person with her, walks her out, puts her.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: She gets in the car with him, and that's when
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: they drive to that nearby sports complex by the high school.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: And that's where tragically her life ends. He beat her,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: He shot her in the back, shot her multiple times
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: in the head. Take a listen to our cut twelve.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: This is Morgan High Tower, w b R say Fox
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: six And the night that Megan Montgomery was killed, she
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: was doing what so many people in our state were doing,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: and that was watching the Iron Bull. Mountain Brook Police
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: confirming to us that she was last seen at Courtyard
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: two eighty watching the game. When mountain Brook Police do
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: confirm to us that Jason McIntosh, her estranged husband, showed up,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: there was some sort of interaction and then they left
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: together from there, and when her body was found Sunday morning,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: it's just not clear what happened. Investigators have Macintosh in custody,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: but he has not been charged. One of Mega Montgomery's
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: best friends says his last conversation with her was about
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the abuse she said she suffered. John Michael says, Well, says,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: I know what she's told me and what she told
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: her friends, which was that there was this level of
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: fear that she experienced. His friends, his best friends, were
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: there for him, and she didn't feel like those people
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: who are meant to protect her could be there for
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: her without some sort of a bias happening. A bias
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that's light petting for a fume on the pig, A bias.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't just the shooting in the arm incident
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: where he went unscathed, all his buddies walking off. I
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: guess they laughed on the way back to the patrol car.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Listen to our cut one. This is reporter John Papkey,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: WVTN NBCT. Two months ago, police showed up after the
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: man's wife was shot during a fight in their home.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: That gunfire launched a state investigation. On February twenty third,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Hoover police responded to Village Center Street and the ross
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Bridge community. They found a thirty one year old woman
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: shot in the arm. Investigators claimed the gun went off
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: while the then officer, Jason McIntosh, and his wife were
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: fighting over the fire arm. She was shot in the
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: arm like I mentioned, but ultimately Eliah confirmed that the
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Bessemer District Attorney's office chose not to prosecute the officer.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Then yesterday officers were called to that home again and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: found the wife with scrapes and red marks after a
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: fight with McIntosh. Now, McIntosh has been arrested and charged
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: with domestic violence third degree, a misdemeanor. He was booked
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: into the Hoover City Jail and posted a one thousand
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: dollar bond an hour later. Now McIntosh resigned from the
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Hoover Police Department on March twentieth. That has less than
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: a month after his wife was shot during net scuffle
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: in their home. So now he's back. You heard not
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: only about the shooting in the arm incident, but then
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: cops are back at the home where she is scraped
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: up and bruised. But yet, Jesse Evans and I'm not
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: shooting here, I'm not cutting off your head. You're just
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the messenger. But the DA's office chosen not to prosecute.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: What's that about. That's insane, Nancy. These domestic cases are
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: so predictable. And when you see this history of violence
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: between somebody, listen, Megan Montgomery had a right to live
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: her life violence free and not terrorized by the person
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: living in her home. We as prosecutors have an obligation
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: to take these cases seriously because they can have the
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: gravest of consequences when you don't. So to say that
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: there's a breakdown here in the system, that will be
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: an understatement you know, Jesse Evans, former Deputy Chief Assistant
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: DA in Cobb County. They have a lot of homicize
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: in Cobb County because it's close to Atlanta. Long story short,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: jeff See, I remember, you know, as a felony prosecutor,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: you know that by the time we get a domestic
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: violence case, it's no longer a simple battery or a
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: shove or a push or a red mark. Somebody's dead
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: or they're agg assaulted. In other words, they're shot, they're stabbed,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: and they lived through it. I remember distinctly, I had
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: just gotten my own courtroom and with a great judge,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the Honorable Luther Alverson. He was the oldest judge in
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: the courthouse, Jesse. I don't know if you remember him.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: And therefore he swore, he swore he would keep the
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: lowest jail count in other words, the lowest amount of
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: people in jail waiting to be tried in his courtroom.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: And he always said, Miss Grace, we got to keep
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the lights in the courtroom burning. In other words, we
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: were going to try cases every other week. That's how
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I ended up trying so many cases, Jesse. So I
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: remember the first time I saw a woman She was
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: a real pale looking very thin. She came into the
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: courtroom and she had her leg as I recall, the
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: right leg in a cast from the hip down, walking
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: on crutches. I mean a full on cast. I don't
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: mean a boot on her foot. I mean the big, thick,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: white cement looking cast. She came in with the boyfriend
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: who had done this to her to drop charges. And
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I looked at them and I questioned her about you
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: don't want to. It's already gone through a grand jury
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: in Diamond. That's why I've got it. And I said no,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: And to the defendant, I said, this is not her decision.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: She's trying to drop charges against you. I'm the one
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: that's gonna put you in jail, not her not dropping it.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: So why didn't they do that? Jesse? All right, I
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: couldn't agree more Nancy, And I'm shocked by the decision making.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I always hate to second guess my peers. At the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: same time, you have to take these domestic environment cases seriously.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: The moment that you don't, they can have tragic consequences. Sure,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the victims sentiments and their wishes are always a factor,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: but it's never a siding factor. For what we as
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: prosecutors do. And I think that there was a terrible,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: terrible travesty of justice here that the prosecutors and this
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't just a simple battery case, as you noted, that
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: this was a case where she was actually shot. Me
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: on the idea that you would reduce those charges or
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: not take it to the felony level, whatever the victims
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: wishes are, that's pretty shocking to me. And as hard
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: as domestic violence cases may be to prosecute because of
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: all of the things that go along with them, sometimes
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: you have to make that tough decision as a prosecutor
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: and say the word, no, I'm not going to let
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: this case go. It's too serious. And while you may
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: not realize the full deadly consequences of what might happen
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: when we fail to prosecute a case, we certainly recognize
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: what those potential consequences are and we're going to make
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: that tough decision. We should be making that tough decision
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: that we're going for whatever the wishes of the victim.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Maybe crime stories with Nancy Grace, guys, we were talking
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: about the death of a beautiful young woman, Megan Montgomery,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: was so avoidable take a listen to our cut seven.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: This is NBC's reporter Kate snow Listen. More women were
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: killed by domestic partners with guns in twenty nineteen than
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: all the people who died in mass shootings that year.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: What makes You the most angry? Season? Didn't nobody believe Megan?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: They weren't on her side, not just Megan. Megan's story
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: has been repeated across this country thousands of times. Earlier
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: this year, Jason McIntosh pleaded guilty to murder and was
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: sentenced to thirty years. Weeks before she died, Megan said
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: she wanted to educate other women about the warning signs
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: of domestic violence. So that's what her family is doing.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Her father, Johnny, she's not allowed, but she's saving a
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: lot of people right now. Let me also point out
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: and correct me if I'm wrong to call parton Jackie. Also,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: he murdered her just sixteen days after her paper ploys
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: give him back his gun? That's right? Is right? Only
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: sixteen days? Asked her? His gun is returned? And I
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: think it's also important to note she was doing everything right.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: She filed the restraining order, she filed for divorce, she
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: moved in with her parents. Then she got her own place.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: She was trying, she was in counseling for domestic abuse.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: She was doing everything she could. While she was doing
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: everything right, he was busy texting the lead detective with
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, begging for his gun back,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: texting the lead detective, I need my weapon. I'm going
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: to open a security business. I need my gun. I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: need my gun. His persistence paid off, and he wound
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: up meeting the lead detective in a parking lot. That
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: lead detective handed him back his weapon. Sixteen days later,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Megan Montgomery is dead. Well, there was a third person
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: in that parking lot, Satan just hovering, hovering over the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: moment he convinced the detective to give him back his gun.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: And let me ask you something, Chris Buyer's Forum, Police
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Chief John's Creek. That doesn't sound official to me. Don't
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: you go back to the courthouse or the DA's office
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: and get your property. Why do you meet in a
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: parking lot and somebody hands you your gun? Well, what's that? Yeah,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that's that doesn't sound right at all. It sounds like
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: that the Atlanta or the Alabama Investigative Department took his
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: weapon during the investigation of the shooting. Once he was
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: cleared of that and no charges were filed on that,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: they should have been the one releasing that from the
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: evidence room. You should have been signing vouchers to take
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: possession back a detective meeting. You're in a parking lot
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: to return evidence. Is that that's shades man, You're not kidding,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Jesse Evans form a prosecutor. That's not right. I never
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: met a defendant in a parking lot and gave them
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: their weapon or their crack cocaine or their stolen property. No, yeah, absolutely,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I mean that's not the way that things are supposed
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: to happen. And let's add to it too, that there
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: was a restraining order as well, so whether the charges
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: were dismissed or not, there was absolutely no reason that
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: they should have been given back to him in the
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: first place, much less in a parking lot under these circumstances.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: That's not how it happens. Even if there's no legal
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: basis to retain that firearm as evidence or because it
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: can't be returned to somebody because of a restraining order,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: this is just not the way you do. We have
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: evidence rooms, we have protocols, we have forms that need
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: to be filled out. You have to make a chain
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: of custody, document trail of what happens with these types
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: of things. The idea that you would simply text the
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: lead investigator and meet him in a parking lot that
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: just screams shady to me. Guys, take a listen to
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: our cut number eleven. This is your Porter Stoney Sharp,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: ABC thirty three SLASH forty about what happened the night
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Megan is murdered. Mountain Brook police escorted Jason McIntosh into
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the county jail. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit and
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: his hands and feet were shackled. Being charged with capital murder.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: No bond set for the death of Megan Montgomery, his
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: a strange wife. New details this morning. Megan Montgomery's final moments,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: according to Mountain Brooke Pete, Montgomery, was lasting at a
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: bar on Highway to Wady. She with Macintosh, and police
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: now believe the couple went directly to the mountain Brook
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Athletic Complex, where Montgomery was shot multiple times in the head,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: and Macintosh's attorney now tells us a restraining order was
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: in place, demanding both parties to stay away from each other.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And today Montgomery's visitation will be held in Homewood. Nicole
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Parton Crime online dot Com investigative reporter was she did
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I hear she was shot in the back? She was.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: That's correct. She was shot in the back and then
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: in the head multiple times. To you, doctor Kennel Crown's
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: renown medical examiner, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Travis County, Doctor
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Kennel Crown, she's clearly running away from him. She's shot
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: in the back. Yeah, that would be what It appears
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: that she had turned away from him and was trying
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: to get away. He probably shot her in the back,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: dropping her to the ground, and then finished her off
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: by putting more into her head. Guys, take a listen
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: to our friend Kate Snow NBC News is our cut sakes.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I hope you're sitting down. A spokesperson for the Alabama
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Law Enforcement Agency told NBC News they had no legal
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: justification to keep the weapon, stating the restraining order Megan
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: had did not restrict mister McIntosh's access to firearms, but
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Alabama law specifically says no person who is subject to
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: a valid protection order for domestic abuse shall own a
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: firearm or have one in his or her possession or
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: under his or her control. The law says this person
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have a gun. Harriet so that. Lindsay Nichols is
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Federal policy director at the Gifford's Law Center. She says
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Alabama and thirty six other states mirror a federal law
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: that says anyone convicted of a domestic violence crime or
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: subject to a final restraining order is prohibited from possessing
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: a gun. But few states have actual procedures to track
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: abusers and have them surrender their firearms. The federal law
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: that says to these people are prohibited from sessing guns,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: it doesn't automatically make the guns disappear out of their hands.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: It's as if the mandate is there, but there's no
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: mechanics for how to implement it. That's exactly right. Well,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: I can tell you this, handing over a gun to
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: a known domestic terrorists and a parking lot is not
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: what the statute envisions. Let's just let's just say, Jesse Evans,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: it's not the spirit of the statute. Would you agree? Oh,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I totally agree. And here's the thing about it. You know,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: if you want to get your firearms back, and I
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: have evidence that you're a domestic abuser. You're gonna have
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: to fight for it. You're gonna have to get your
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: lawyer involved. This may be something that we as prosecutors
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: forced the court, but listen when you there's multiple ways
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: to take a firearm, and it's not just pending charges
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: or whether it's collected as evidence of a crime. The
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: existence of the restraining order, whether it is explicit about
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: no firearms or not, the mere existence of it should
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: be a legal basis for not returning that firearm to
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: abuser so that you can avoid just these kind of
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: militias circumstances. They didn't see the law because they didn't
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: want to see the law. They didn't hear the law
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: because they didn't want to hear the law. They didn't
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: act because they didn't want to act against one of
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: their co workers. Jason Macintosh. Megan Montgomery's a strange husband
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: and cop. Her family devastated. But all I can do
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: is give you this information. Megan's Domestic Violence Prevention Fund
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: is at CFB ham from Birmingham dot org. Slash Megan's Fund,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: National Domestic Violence Hotline eight hundred seven nine nine Safe
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: eight hundred seven nine seven two three three Goodbye friend,