Clark County Eighth Judicial District Court Judge Stefany Miley came face to face with a man she ultimately sentenced to life without parole for being found guilty of committing murder with an ax.
Harold Montague, 38, agreed to spend the rest of his life in prison when he pleaded guilty on Thursday, May 22, 2014, but mentally ill, to first-degree murder for killing a baby with a battle ax in Las Vegas. It was a murder that shocked Las Vegas.
On Feb. 11, 2010, Harold Montague left his southeast valley home armed with a battle ax and attacked a woman and her baby as they strolled down the street. He hacked a 4-month-old baby in a stroller to death with a medieval-style battle ax and critically injured the child’s mother, nearly severing her jaw and leaving her with lifelong facial disfigurement.
Montague’s guilty plea in Judge Stefany Miley’s Clark County District Court included first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, two counts of attempted murder and battery on a police officer.
The plea meant Montague wouldn’t face trial or the death penalty, but that he would be imprisoned with no chance of parole. Sentencing was scheduled for July 30, 2014.
At the sentencing, Judge Miley ordered the murderer to spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole. That was for the charge of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. The judge also added another 40 to 100 years to the sentence for weapon enhancement as well two counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon. See the coverage, with courtroom photos in the LVRJ here: Ax murderer gets life in prison
Here’s how the Las Vegas Sun newspaper reported the case:
“The plea deal … meant that Sonia Lisset Castro won’t have to testify again about hearing her attacker laugh and mock her as she pleaded for him to stop attacking her and her child, Damian Avila Castro.
“Castro testified at a preliminary hearing in April 2010 that her face was split open and her jaw had to be surgically reattached after the February 2010 attack. She said her right eye was irreparably damaged.
“Her son’s overturned stroller was left next to a bloody stain in the street.
“Montague also stabbed his profoundly disabled sister-in-law, Monica O’Dazier, some 20 times inside their home before bursting outside and attacking Castro and her son, police said. O’Dazier was treated for her injuries and survived.
“A neighbor [Teresa Garner], who witnessed the attack, dialed 911 and helped Castro once police subdued Montague, testified through tears that the incident caused her to suffer an emotional breakdown. She said she spent seven days in psychiatric care.
“On the emergency call, which was played in court, the neighbor is heard shrieking, ‘Oh my God! Her face is split open where he hit her with the hatchet!’”
The Las Vegas Review Journal’s report included the details that, “Garner described the condition of the two victims after the attack. Castro’s mouth had been split, and her lower jaw was down on her chest, Garner said. Castro’s face was covered in blood. ‘Her face was gone,’ Garner said.”
In the Sun report, the story notes that, “Montague told police he had no memory of the attacks.
“His wife, Erricca Montague, testified that the attack weapon used to hang on the wall of their home. She said her husband sometimes smoked marijuana but didn’t take other drugs and never drank alcohol. She testified she hadn’t felt her husband was a danger to her, their three children or her disabled sister. But he also hadn’t been eating and spent several sleepless nights pacing the floor before the attack.
“Reed and defense lawyer Andrea Luem never sought a mental evaluation or challenged Montague’s fitness for trial.
“’Competency and mental illness are two different things,’” Reed said. “’He understands the charges against him and is able to aid in his defense. With Harold it’s mental illness.’”
This is a case and a sentencing that haunts Judge Miley to this day — it was such a gripping, horrid homicide involving an innocent baby and his mother.