Jury selection scheduled in murder trial

From across Northwest 55th Avenue in Lauderhill, a neighbor saw Bertharee Tomlin, 73, stumble out of Eric Montgomery’s home moments after the sound of gunshots shattered the quiet as night fell on the first day of 2012.

The neighbor thought the sound might have been fireworks, according to court records. But something seemed odd. Through her window, she saw Tomlin went into some bushes, apparently to hide. She didn’t come back out. The neighbor, Theresa Lane, had no way of knowing the full terror of what Tomlin had just survived.

She had just witnessed her own grandson, Montgomery, kill his wife and her daughter, according to police and prosecutors. Jury selection in his murder case is scheduled to wrap up on Monday, with opening statements tentatively planned for Tuesday. The murders were so cold-blooded and heinous, prosecutors say, that Montgomery, 35, deserves the death penalty if convicted.

Tomlin told police she was wounded when she tried to shield Natalia Hamilton, 34, from Montgomery’s violent rage. He had already shot and killed Hamilton’s older daughter, Alexis, 19, but Tomlin was determined to protect Alexis’ mother.

“Move, grandma,” Montgomery said, according to a police report. “Move, grandma!”

Tomlin is expected to take the stand against her grandson, who walked outside after her, just as Lane was about to open her own front door to find out what was going on.

“I’ve never been scared of him for any reason,” said Lane. “I’ve never had any type of dealing with him that would have made me scared of him. It was just, an instinct said just go back in the house.”

She refused, she told a detective. He fired at Hamilton and one of the bullets struck his grandmother in the right forearm.

Lane said she didn’t even know Tomlin’s relationship with Montgomery, a neighbor she knew as friendly and well-mannered. But seeing Tomlin hide in the bushes prompted Lane to take action.

“Now I’m thinking, okay, something’s happened,” Lane told a defense lawyer under oath in a 2015 interview. “Let’s go help her. Let’s go get her some help.”

Montgomery went back into his house, Lane said. Two more shots were fired. Then he came back out and left in a Ford F-150 pickup.

It was then that Lane left her house to help Tomlin, she said.

Montgomery’s sister, Melissa, is also a likely witness in the case. She told police she saw Montgomery shoot and kill his stepdaughter, Alexis. Melissa Montgomery escaped from the house with her brother’s 7-year-old daughter before the shooting was over. She did not see the second murder.

The motive for Montgomery’s alleged rampage is not clear. Defense lawyer Ruth Martinez declined to answer questions about the case. According to court records, Alexis Hamilton had called Montgomery’s family for help in calming him down, but it’s not clear from those records why he was upset. His rage was amplified when his grandmother and sister would not leave, according to an initial arrest report.

Prosecutors told Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes that Montgomery declined to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison.

Montgomery