Posted on 12/15/2007 6:46:46 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
With his dog shot dead, his wife tied to a chair and his 16-month-old child asleep in a nearby bedroom, a West Valley City man took a gamble to end a home invasion robbery Thursday night.
As he was being dragged at gunpoint around his home in search of valuables to steal, the man snatched a gun from one of the invaders and pulled the trigger.
Jesse James Montoya, a suspected gang member, fell to the floor dead. A second home invader and a female accomplice fled the scene, and police were still looking for them.
Shortly after a woman knocked on the door, two men forced their way into a home, in the 3500 South block of 4400 West, about 10:20 p.m. Thursday, police said.
The invaders shot and killed the family's Great Dane dog, taped the homeowner's wife to a chair, and one of the intruders took the husband around the house at gunpoint looking for valuables, police said.
That's when the homeowner snatched the gun from Montoya and shot him, said West Valley City police Lt. Lamonte Cox. According to court records, Montoya was charged with second-degree felony attempted murder in 1994. He was also charged and pleaded guilty to third-degree felony aggravated assault the same year.
West Valley City police Sgt. Bill Merritt said investigators are determining how the robbers chose their victims. The homeowner said he hadn't met or seen Montoya before, which sets the incident apart from other home invasion robberies, Merritt said.
Random home robberies are unusual, Merritt said.
"We're looking for a possible link [between the homeowner and robbers]," he said. "Very rarely is it a random hit."
The homeowner on Friday evening declined an interview request through a relative, who said the man's attorney advised him not to speak to the media about the incident.
The couple's baby was not hurt, Cox said.
West Valley City, UT has a big trend of drug dealers ripping each other off through home-invasion robberies. Criminals using it as a random technique is not common. If you know a guy has a lot of cash or valuables around, it’s better to watch the house and wait for him to leave to grab the stuff. Confronting a guy in his own house has all kinds of unknowns and all kinds of things can go wrong.
>Not so. The life of the great dane wass worth far more than the lives of the criminals that invaded this home.
I believe that your typical violent criminal holds his own life so cheap that he figures that in trading his for yours, he wins.
And he wins even bigger when he escapes justice, as often happens even if he is caught.
Babies are innocent. Thats why I am glad the homeowners child was not hurt.
Usually both are involved.
Much as I resent that I feel this way, there is no way under similar circumstance that I would not have an attorney before talking to the police. The main reason is you have -- from a Court's point-of-view -- acquired an unimpeachable witness to all actions by both you and the police. Your wife or next-door neighbor might be good people, but the Court will accept the word of an "Officer of the Court" more readily against the opinions and statements of the cops.
The inferences from the cops here indicates he's done the right thing.
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