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Prosecutors lacked faith in any of the witnesses they might have had testify against Otis Montgomery III.
By DEBORAH O'NEIL
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 3, 2001
CLEARWATER -- In building a case that wealthy Clearwater businessman Otis Montgomery III plotted to have hitmen murder his wife of 19 years, the statewide prosecutor's office needed at least one solid witness to support the accusations.
Investigators thought they had three men with firsthand knowledge of Montgomery's intentions.
There was the ex-con from Boston, once part of an illegal bookmaking operation, who hit up the defense attorney for money and repeatedly changed his story.
There was Montgomery's son, in and out of drug rehab with a nine-page arrest record, whom prosecutors were never able to find.
And there was the other ex-con nicknamed "Red" who said Montgomery paid him to stage a car accident with the wife but also admitted to investigators, "Uh, my memory is a little burned because of getting high."
Clearly, the prosecution's case was having witness credibility issues.
So after an investigation that took at least five months, involved three agents and one crime intelligence analyst from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Clearwater Police Department and 223 hours of FDLE police work, the Statewide Prosecutor's Office dropped its case against Montgomery this summer.
"It's over," said Chief Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Joe Larrinaga, who handled the case. "I couldn't prove (guilt) beyond a reasonable doubt."
Montgomery's attorney, Bruce Young of Palm Harbor, said he continues to believe the accusations are connected to the Montgomerys' ongoing bitter divorce.
The affluent couple's split, now in its 15th month and occupying seven volumes in the county courthouse, has been checkered with accusations of financial wrongdoing. Mrs. Montgomery has control of the couple's quarter-million-dollar home and Clearwater computer staffing business -- an estimated $6.8-million in assets, according to a consultant's analysis completed as part of the divorce.
Montgomery, 56, has said all along he did not do any of the things of which he was accused. In an interview after his arrest, Montgomery suggested his son, Otis Montgomery IV, made up the story because he would not give his son money.
"(Mr. Montgomery) is in better spirits after the state investigated the merits of that conspiracy case," Young said. "It's certainly as I hoped."
Mrs. Montgomery, 52, who said she was advised by authorities to leave town during the investigation so her husband could not find her, has resigned herself to the outcome, said her Clearwater attorney, Ky Koch. A former prosecutor, Koch praised the police work done in the case and said said he recognizes the challenges the prosecutor faced with the witnesses.
"In our opinion, that doesn't change the facts," Koch said. "It doesn't change whether it happened."
The Montgomerys are on their best behavior in court, Koch said, and she slowly is recovering from the terror of the experience.
"That kind of fear is going to linger with her for quite some time," Kock said. "There hasn't been any overt action since then. If he was quite intent on doing it, my hope is he's scared to death now and we don't have to worry. He's obviously under a microscope now."
Montgomery was arrested shortly after Christmas last year on three counts of solicitation to commit murder and one count of aggravated battery.
According to arrest affidavit, Montgomery called his son in jail, badgered him to kill his wife and asked him to "find some thug" willing to harm her. He talked of throwing acid in his wife's face, having someone break into her house and beat her, hitting her with a nail-studded two by four and trying to get her arrested for drunken driving, according to the FDLE.
Eventually, the younger Otis introduced his father to William "Red" Harris, a fellow inmate, and Jeff Mizen, a Massachusetts man he'd lived with at a local halfway house, the affidavit says.
Authorities say Montgomery paid Harris to hit Mrs. Montgomery's car in an accident Clearwater Police responded to on Aug. 9, 2000. Montgomery also, according to FDLE, agreed to pay Mizen $50,000 to make his wife "disappear."
A few thousand dollars was exchanged, but Mizen said he took the money and left town.
In the months prior to and following Montgomery's arrest, FDLE agents Cynthia Sanz, Sharon Feola, Lee Strope and analyst Darrin Delaney gathered evidence and conducted hours of interviews -- some at the Hillsborough County Jail where Harris was being held.
"They're frustrated," said FDLE spokesman Rick Morera. "The important thing to remember here is we can't pick our witnesses. Obviously if you're going to solicit someone to hurt or kill your spouse, you're not going to go to the upstanding citizens of the community."
Agents tracked down stacks of receipts, phone records and other documents to support the case. They collected Mrs. Montgomery's hospital and medical records after she said she suspected her husband poisoned her dog, Chanel, and may have been trying to poison her.
They found a Bahama Breeze waitress who they believe witnessed a meeting of Montgomery, his son and Mizen. The waitress looked at photographs and easily identified Mizen, but not the father and son.
FDLE agents even tried to secretly record conversations with Montgomery.
In October, FDLE and the Clearwater Police tried without success to get useful information from a conversation between Montgomery and his son.
"Junior has a crack cocaine problem and was somewhat reluctant to help," the FDLE report reads. In early December, FDLE arranged for Mizen to go to Montgomery's house to talk about the alleged murder, but Mizen never showed up.
Mizen proved to be the most difficult of the witnesses, Larrinaga said -- aside from the younger Montgomery, whom Larrinaga could not find. At one point, Mizen contacted Montgomery's lawyer asking for money to disappear, Larrinaga said. "After meeting Mr. Mizen, I thoroughly believed what Mr. Young had told me," Larrinaga said.
Initially, Mizen cooperated with FDLE, telling them Montgomery wanted his wife killed. Later, Mizen told authorities he "no longer wanted to be involved in this case," answering questions in a limited manner.
"Mizen did not recall or remember many of the facts relating to his prior testimony," a February investigation report reads.
Larrinaga didn't know what to make of Mizen and worried putting him on the stand would be a disaster. Young would shred Mizen's credibility, he said. And, given the "complete and utter distaste" he felt after interviewing Mizen, Larrinaga said he couldn't put him before a jury.