Man Sentenced for Attacking Detroit EMTs With Box Cutter, Other Crimes

Oct. 14--A Detroit emergency medical technician slashed in the face with a box cutter while on duty last year spoke during her attacker's sentencing today, calling him a murderer, rapist and "psychopath that tried to kill two medics that were just trying to do their jobs."

Kelly Adams brought a picture of her bloody face taken after she and her partner, Alfredo Rojas, were attacked last October to Michael Montgomery's sentencing in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit.

She told the court Montgomery maimed her and gave her scars and mental issues she'll have for life.

"He got all Freddy Krueger with us ... but he didn't win," Adams said during her victim impact statement, adding Rojas also survived.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Hathaway sentenced Montgomery to 40-80 years in prison today in each of his four cases. His sentences will be served concurrently.

Montgomery, 31, of Detroit pleaded guilty last month to crimes in the attack on the EMTs as well as crimes in three cases from 2005 and 2006. He kidnapped and raped two women and sexually assaulted and murdered, Dantoya White, a teen stabbed and found in a Detroit alley on Jan. 1, 2006.

"You mutilated her body," said Lorenzo White, Dantoya White's uncle. "You just didn't kill her. You took her soul."

He said 40 years is not enough, called it "a slap in the face" and said Montgomery harmed more than three families.

"What happened to the victims in this case is unspeakable and that's why a plea in this case of 40 to 80 years was an excellent resolution," Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, said in an e-mail after the hearing. "It is for all practical purposes a life sentence."

She said it's "improbable" that Montgomery will ever get parole given his convictions in the cases.

Montgomery did not say anything today when given a chance to speak. He sat handcuffed, sometimes with his eyes closed, during the hearing.

His attorney, Wyatt Harris, said Montgomery didn't want to put the families through a trial and agreed to plead guilty in the four cases.

Hathaway called the cases all very serious and gruesome before he handed down the sentences.

He said Montgomery isn't available for parole review until he is 71, and the maximum sentence involves him being in prison until well after he turns 100. If he is ever released, Montgomery will have to wear a GPS tether.

"Mr. Montgomery did, in the end, own up to his just egregious behavior in these cases," Hathaway said. "And as a result of the plea and sentence agreement in this case, the public and the victims, the victims' families were spared the ordeal and anguish of going through four separate trials."

Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Danielle Hagaman-Clark said police were hunting for Montgomery when he attacked the EMTs.

"Fortunately, his reign of terror is over," she told the court.

Last month, Montgomery pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct in White's case, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping in a case involving a 33-year-old woman raped in 2005 and pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping and torture in another case from 2006.

In the attack on the EMTs, Montgomery pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with intent to murder, two counts assaulting/resisting/obstructing causing serious impairment and assault with intent to maim. Prosecutors said the sentencing guidelines in that case were about 14 to 23 years.

"He received exponentially more than his guidelines," Miller said of the EMT case.

She said the guilty pleas and the sentence agreements were discussed multiple times with the victims.

"Ultimately the EMTs, as well as Ms. White's grandmother and mother indicated that they were fine with the plea," Miller said in an email.

White's mother, Morennica Jefferson, told reporters after the hearing that Montgomery deserves to spend his life in prison and not see daylight, "just like my daughter won't see daylight." Both EMTs said today that they think Montgomery deserves life behind bars.

"For the record, I don't think justice was served," Adams said.

She testified previously she used a step stool to try to fend off Montgomery Oct. 20, 2015, as he attacked her and Rojas.

When the attack was over, "I had arteries cut in my face," Adams testified during an earlier court hearing, adding Rojas "had arteries cut in his hand."

The EMTs went to Third Street near Martin Luther King on a call of a woman with an injured ankle. Montgomery, who wasn't allowed in the ambulance with his girlfriend, began swearing at the EMTs, punched Rojas in the head and pulled the box cutter, Adams testified.

Rojas said he has returned to the job, but Adams said she remains on leave.

Adams, who was in court along with Rojas, other EMTs and family members of some of Montgomery's victims, showed the picture of her slashed face as she talked to reporters after the hearing. She had it in court as well.

"I just wanted him to look at it," she said.

Contact Elisha Anderson: eanderson@freepress.com or 313-222-5144. Follow her on Twitter @elishaanderson.

Copyright 2016 - Detroit Free Press