Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991 TAG: 9102150765
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF and/ DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Police had spent the night in the woods watching the house on Virginia 43 just outside of Buchanan after Botetourt authorities received a tip that David Fleming Montgomery was there.
Montgomery - described by police as extremely dangerous, probably armed and wearing body armor - was arrested without incident about 7:45 a.m. after he came out the back door, Botetourt County Sheriff Norman Sprinkle said.
Sprinkle said a deputy spotted Montgomery and told him to freeze. Montgomery listened because he was looking down the sight of the deputy's gun and the pointed weapons of the other officers, Sprinkle said.
Authorities were cautious because Montgomery had a record of escape and is so strong he has broken leg irons and handcuffs. One of his escapes came in 1977 when he was serving a life sentence in the maximum security wing of Southwestern State Hospital in Marion for murder.
A psychiatrist who tested Montgomery described him at the time as "apparently not psychotic, but just plain mean."
Sprinkle declined to name the residents of the house where Montomery was arrested today. He said Montgomery has relatives in Buchanan, but he was not sure whether Montgomery was with the relatives.
Botetourt authorities received a tip Thursday afternoon that Montgomery might be at the house. Sprinkle contacted federal authorities who took out warrants accusing Montgomery of being hired to burn down a Franklin County house last October to prevent a black family from buying it.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said Thursday that Montgomery, 49, is charged with arson and arson in the commission of a civil rights violation.
The house, in the Penhook section of Franklin County, was doused with gasoline and set afire last Halloween, authorities said. Montgomery is accused of having been hired by a neighbor who did not want blacks moving in, authorities said.
Authorities refused to reveal the name of the neighbor or say whether that person had also been charged.
Authorities said Thursday some witnesses against Montgomery are under protection. "Measures have been taken to secure the other witnesses' testimony," Bondurant said.
One potential witness in the arson case has been killed, federal authorities said. He was identified as Paul Daniel Bostic, 45, of Roanoke.
Bostic was killed Sunday night by someone who knocked on the door of his home and then shot him through the door when he asked who was there. Roanoke police, who are investigating Bostic's killing, would not comment on whether Montgomery was a suspect.
Bostic's son, Doug Bostic, said in an interview today that his father and Montgomery had been longtime friends but recently had a falling out. Doug Bostic said Montgomery had been harassing and threatening his family for a couple of months and the family had complained to police.
Until the falling out, Bostic said, Montgomery had been "sort of a hero" to him because of his physical strength and his tendency toward violence.
Bostic said Montgomery bragged continuously about his criminal exploits, including murder and robbery.
Since his father's killing, Bostic said, he now realizes that Montgomery is no hero and that violence is not to be admired.
The massive search for Montgomery began Thursday after federal authorities asked state police to issue a general alert listing Montgomery as a suspect in the Bostic killing in Roanoke and a killing last month in Henry County.
Paul Daniel Bostic, of the 2200 block of Larchwood Street Northeast, was dead on arrival at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. He had been shot once in the neck, police said.
Bostic's wife, Patricia, told police that she heard a knock at the front door just before midnight Sunday. She told her husband, who was in bed, to "come and bring the gun," police said.
Bostic put his face up to a pane of frosted glass in the door and asked who was there. Patricia Bostic then heard a gunshot and saw her husband stagger backward, police said.
She told police the person at the door had responded with a woman's name when her husband asked for identification.
Bostic's killing is similar to one that occurred Jan. 18 in Henry County, leading police to list Montgomery as a suspect in that killing.
In that case, Leonard Green "Pee Wee" Martin, 68, was shot twice with a gun believed to be a .357 Magnum as he opened the front door of his trailer home, authorities said. Martin's body was found on the front porch of his home in the Blackberry section of the county.
Authorities said Martin apparently had gone outside in response to a knock on the door or to look for someone or something. He had a flashlight and was wearing only boxer shorts and slippers.
Investigators say they know of no connection between Montgomery and Martin, except for the possible connection through the man they believe hired Montgomery to burn the Franklin County house.
Authorities are waiting for the results of ballistic tests on bullets used in both killings to determine whether there is a connection.
Montgomery also is wanted on charges of armed robbery of a jewelry store in Bristol, Tenn., and for federal parole violations, authorities said. Montgomery was on federal parole for an armed bank robbery, authorities said.
In Bristol, Montgomery is accused of robbing D&D Jewelry at gunpoint, allegedly taking the manager, a clerk and customer into a back room and threatening to shoot them. Police say the robber escaped with $30,000 worth of jewelry.
Montgomery, who's originally from Narrows, was sentenced to life in prison for killing a man in Giles County in 1972. At the time, Montgomery was on bond awaiting trial in a bank robbery case.
The killing was described at the time by prosecutors as "nothing but a gangland killing."
The man who was killed, James "Buck" Fields, was found near his home with three bullets in his head on July 20, 1972.
Montgomery was arrested for that killing in a similar fashion to today's arrest. In that case, members of the Giles County Sheriff's Department, state police and Pearisburg and Narrows town police surrounded his house and he surrendered peacefully.
Although he was given a life sentence for that murder, Montgomery was released on parole in 1982. But he was detained in prison for another five years on charges out of Columbus, Ohio.
Montgomery was arrested in Roanoke by FBI agents about two weeks ago on a fugitive warrant from Tennessee on the jewelry-store robbery, authorities said. He was placed in the Roanoke jail and then transferred to Tennessee, where he was released on $25,000 bond Saturday, authorities said.
In Bristol, General Sessions Court Judge Klyne Lauderback said he was not told of Montgomery's extensive criminal record during an arraignment. Montgomery was to have appeared at a preliminary hearing Tuesday on the robbery charge.
Lt. Bill Smith of the Bristol Police Department said "We had him in leg irons at one point, and when deputies went to retrieve him from the cell, the irons were gone," Smith said. "Someone told us that he had broken them into pieces and flushed them down the toilet."
Montgomery's parole officer, Buddy Ross of Roanoke, said Montgomery has spent most of the past 22 years serving time in federal and state prisons on a variety of offenses.
by CNB