Man gets 20-year sentence for fatally shooting girl, 12

Brad L. Montgomery, 19, apologized to the judge for shooting Lisa Erickson while playing with a handgun in November 1999.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 13, 2001

LARGO -- Crystal Erickson wants the man who killed her daughter to write a letter saying he's sorry.

Brad L. Montgomery has already written a letter to a judge apologizing for killing 12-year-old Lisa Erickson in 1999 with an accidental shot from a handgun. Mrs. Erickson doesn't believe the words.

"I want it to come from his heart," said Mrs. Erickson, who is in jail for violating her probation on an unrelated battery conviction.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Dee Anna Farnell on Tuesday sentenced Montgomery to 20 years in prison, followed by two years' probation, for the shooting death of Lisa. In a plea agreement, Montgomery, 19, pleaded no contest on Friday to a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child.

Montgomery also pleaded no contest to two auto theft charges and was sentenced to five years in prison, concurrent with the other sentence.

Upon release, he was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service by speaking to area high school students about gun safety and violence.

Montgomery was playing with a .38-caliber handgun on Nov. 16, 1999, while with girlfriend Adina Semonelle, then 14, at her grandmother's house in St. Petersburg.

Police said he pointed the gun at the face of Lisa Erickson. Lisa tried to push the gun away.

The gun fired once. The bullet hit Lisa in the nose and lodged in her spine. She was left paralyzed and in a vegetative state.

Semonelle and Montgomery then hid Lisa's body from rescuers in a vacant lot next door so they wouldn't get into trouble, police said.

Up to 45 minutes later, Lisa was discovered unconscious. She died nearly a month later.

Montgomery was originally charged with second-degree murder, punishable by up to life.

In March 2000, Semonelle pleaded no contest to being an accessory after the fact and was committed to a secure juvenile facility.

"I don't know what kind of sentence you're giving Brad," Dixie Wyatt, Lisa's grandmother, told the judge. "But it can't be as bad as the one he gave me and my family."

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