Officer Recounts Finding Gun Near Scene Of Shootings

CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — Testimony continued Monday in the trial of Demeatrius Montgomery, who is charged in the killings of two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers.

Montgomery is accused of fatally shooting officers Sean Clark and Jeff Shelton at Timber Ridge Apartments in 2007. His trial is now in its fifth week.

For extended coverage of the case, click here.

Prosecutors are continuing to call as witnesses officers who responded to the apartment complex after the shootings.

Jurors watched video from Officer Brad Tisdale's patrol car, which showed Montgomery in the back seat after he was arrested. The court took a short recess during the defense's cross-examination after Tisdale became emotional when asked to confirm his memory of the night of the shootings.

Reserve Officer Jay Garris also took the stand Monday, telling jurors that he found a gun in a wooded area near the scene of the shootings. Prosecutors said that gun was used to kill Clark and Shelton, and told jurors that lab tests showed Montgomery's DNA was on the weapon.

Garris was called to the complex in the early morning hours after Clark and Shelton were shot, he said, and helped with several searches around the buildings. He said he saw a dark-color object with leaves over it in a wooded area off Barrington Drive, near Milton Road, and pushed the leaves aside, revealing a weapon.

Garris then sent for a sergeant, he told jurors, and didn't leave the gun until a crime scene technician arrived. He didn't touch, move or kick the gun, he told the jury.

Nora Beamon, a crime scene investigator for CMPD, then took the witness stand. She collected evidence from several different scenes during the night of and morning after the shootings, she told jurors.

Beamon took photos of Montgomery just after he was arrested, she told jurors, and also performed a gunshot residue test on him. She also took photos of Montgomery in an interview room at police headquarters, she said, and collected the clothes he was wearing.

Beamon then went through bags of evidence that contained those clothes, confirming that she collected the items.

TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Friday, Sept. 17: Bridges decides that jurors can hear about Montgomery's past behavior toward police, saying that similarities in his past interactions with officers created a sufficient pattern of which jurors should be aware. Officers give testimony regarding Montgomery's past arrests and say he has been violent toward police officers.

• Thursday, Sept. 16: Transcripts of police radio traffic and 911 calls from the night of the shootings are released. Click here to read them.

• Wednesday, Sept. 15: Prosecutors begin calling as witnesses police officers who responded to the shootings. Officers describe chaos at the apartment complex in the moments and hours after the incident.

• Friday, Sept. 10: Attorneys, the judge and Montgomery leave the courthouse to hear testimony from Joe Robinson, a witness who is terminally ill with cancer and could not come to court. Montgomery is taken to CMPD's Hickory Grove division office under heavy security. The testimony is recorded so jurors can later see it.

• Wednesday, Sept. 8: With no witnesses to the shootings, prosecutors build their case against Montgomery by piecing together a fragmented picture of what happened the night the officers were killed. They call some witnesses who can place Montgomery at the complex, and others who can recount the moments just before and just after the shootings, but can't identify the killer. Defense attorneys fire back, telling jurors no one can say who pulled the trigger.

• Tuesday, Sept. 7: Prosecutors and defense attorneys give opening statements and testimony begins. Sherry Clark, Sean Clark's widow; and Jennifer Shelton, Jeff Shelton's widow, take the stand. Both women recount the day and night of the shootings.

• Thursday, Sept. 2: Attorneys approve two more jurors, completing the panel.

• Wednesday, Sept. 1: Attorneys approve three more jurors, bringing the panel to 10. Twelve must be chosen, along with two alternates.

• Tuesday, Aug. 31: Prosecutors and defense attorneys approve seven jurors.

• Wednesday, Aug. 25: Prosecutors say they will not appeal the judge's decision to take the death penalty off the table. Jury selection begins.

• Tuesday, Aug. 24: Judge Forrest Bridges rules that Montgomery cannot be sentenced to death if convicted as a result of Fant's mistakes.

• Monday, Aug. 23: Trial begins. Arvin Fant, a detective with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, admits discarding notes related to the investigation into the fatal shootings of Clark and Shelton. Defense attorneys ask the judge to dismiss charges against Montgomery or issue sanctions against prosecution.

WSOC