Caron Montgomery Gets Death Penalty For Triple Stabbing

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A three-judge panel on Tuesday handed down a death penalty verdict for an Ohio man after he pleaded guilty to killing a woman he lived with and her two children on Thanksgiving Day in 2010.

The Franklin County death verdict for Caron Montgomery of Columbus was the county's first in a decade and also a relatively rare case of a death penalty verdict following a guilty plea.

The panel will formally sentence Montgomery to death May 22. On Tuesday, the judges found that the circumstances of the crime outweighed evidence that Montgomery presented as to why he should be spared, and that a death sentence was the appropriate punishment.

The three-judge panel "followed the law and rendered their verdict based upon the overwhelming evidence presented," Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said in a statement. Montgomery's attorney, Scott Weisman, declined to comment.

Montgomery, 38, pleaded guilty earlier this month to multiple counts of aggravated murder and single counts of murder and domestic violence.

Police found Tia Hendricks and her 2-year-old and 10-year-old children stabbed to death inside Hendricks' Columbus apartment the day after the killings.

At least seven defendants have received the death penalty after pleading guilty before such panels over the past 30 years in Ohio, including another Franklin County man, Michael Turner, who pleaded guilty in 2002 to killing his estranged wife and her boyfriend.

That's compared to dozens of cases where three-judge panels found defendants guilty and then sentenced them to death.

Turner remains on death row. Four of the seven defendants who pleaded guilty have since been executed.

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Comments

[sultrycat]

12:02 PM on 05/18/2012

Casey Anthony should of got DEATH! murdering her child..But no she is free just prancing around in OHIO.. whats wrong with that picture??

[sultrycat]

11:58 AM on 05/18/2012

Casey Anthony should of got the death penalty too!! for murdering her child... But no she is off and living the life ... In Ohio mind you!!

[FOXYROSE]

02:23 PM on 05/16/2012

Too bad it will take at least 20 years and a million dollars to finally kill this scum!

[rav1267]

12:18 PM on 05/16/2012

Let him fried like a piece of chicken in the electric chair.

[WeNeed2Change]

09:16 AM on 05/16/2012

Women, stop moving your boyfriends in with your kids. No one says that a single parent (male or female) shouldn't live their lives and have fun, but take care of your priorities first. As adults we have the right to choose who we introduce into our lives. We can judge a person's character and pick up on little things that may make us look at them a certain way and say something isn't right. But our children rely on us to do that for them, and if mom is moving boyfriend in then the children are trusting moms decision. But way too often children are being killed by their parents boyfriend/girlfriend when the children never could have been victims if they weren't exposed to these people.
I am not aware of all of the circumstances in this case, but I'm tired of hearing about children dying because mom or dad didn't want to be alone. As for this guy, good ridance. To murder two children (especially in such an up close and gruesome way) he deserves the death penalty.

[Danceroflife]

09:38 PM on 05/20/2012

Keep in mind that sociopaths can hide their true character an intentions.

With that said, I am always amazed how this country kills people, who kill people, to prove that killing is wrong.

[Mailman]

08:20 AM on 05/16/2012

Strap him to the electric chair and pull the switch.

[tenae]

01:08 AM on 05/16/2012

THTS SAD HE KILLED THE LADY & HER 2 KIDS, I PRAY 4 THE FAMILY

[cwindal]

10:48 AM on 05/16/2012

That is certainly correct. A woman and her two children are dead and we should remember them in prayer. We should also remember he who pled to and was convicted of their murders. Executing the accused does not bring back the dead. I know most of the responses to a position of life in prison v execution, which is my stance on this. We need sweeping changes to the penal system; finding something useful for prisoners to do while incarcerated, would have a high priority in my mind. Although many prisoners may attend classes and the like, those on death row can do nothing more than occasional exercise and much isolation which accomplishes nothing. The dead are not restored to life and no one lives happily ever after.

[Alicia78]

12:28 PM on 05/16/2012

why should we (tax payers) give our hard earned money to pay to house, feed and give health care to these animals...our society doesn't need them....they are murderes and low lives that serve no purpose other than eating up our tax money...I would much rather that money be given to families in need...all the children in this country that are starving and dying of illnesses and we're spending millions on these jerks????

[rewith85man]

07:49 PM on 05/15/2012

Is he sent to the death penalty because he is black?

I do keep hearing about some white criminals being exonerated or receiving a reduced jail/prison sentence.

[MelanieGagnon]

08:30 PM on 05/15/2012

He got the death penalty for killing 3 people...2 of them being children!

[Puzzlr]

12:42 AM on 05/16/2012

He plead guilty, I guess he thought he wouldn't get the death penalty. But when you kill three people (two were children), you get the death penalty. And rightfully so.