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The jury trial of a South Bend man charged with attempted murder began Tuesday in Kosciusko County Circuit Court. The trial is expected to last two days.
Raymond Montgomery, 23, is on trial for allegedly shooting Luis Martinez Diaz on Oct. 21, 1995, outside the Leesburg Deli & More convenience store.
Montgomery is charged with attempted murder, a Class A felony, aggravated battery, a Class B felony, and criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon.
The jury was selected Tuesday morning by Kosciusko County Prosecutor David Kolbe and Montgomery's attorneys Andre Gammage and Jeff Kimmell, both of South Bend.
The 12-person jury is composed of five men and seven women, one of whom is Hispanic. There are no African-Americans on the jury. Montgomery is black.
The prosecution began its case, calling the sheriff's reserve officers and deputies who first responded to the call of the shooting.
Two Kosciusko County reserve officers testified that they were working at the Tippy Dance Hall the night of the shooting. They described breaking up two fights between the same two groups of blacks and Hispanics before the groups finally left the hall.
The two officers testified that they responded to the radio call a few minutes later that shots were fired in Leesburg. When they arrived at the convenience mart, both officers said they helped interview witnesses and gather evidence.
Reserve officer David Krebs testified that he found a spent casing from a .45-caliber gun near the propane pumps at the station. However, further evidence revealed that the casing could not be tested for fingerprints since Krebs handled the casing without gloves.
Kosciusko Deputy Sheriff Todd Sautter was called to the stand to testify he found fragments of a bullet and the jacket around a bullet at the scene. The gun used in the incident was never recovered. He also interviewed several witnesses who were later called to the stand.
Kosciusko County Sheriff's Sgt. Joe Mooney was the next witness for the prosecution. Mooney, who was in charge of the initial investigation of the shooting, is assisting Kolbe in the prosecution.
Mooney testified he interviewed the Hispanic men at Kosciusko Community Hospital, where Diaz was taken by his friends after he was shot in the lower leg. Diaz was later transferred to a Fort Wayne hospital, where he underwent surgery to repair both bones in his leg.
Mooney said he found one witness who spoke English and described a vehicle that was at the scene of the shooting.
The license plate was for an Elkhart County car, and the Elkhart County sheriff was able to trace the car to an Elkhart woman, Rebecca Workman.
According to Mooney's report, Workman was able to identify three men who were with her in her car that night at Tippy Dance Hall and later at Leesburg. She reportedly also identified Montgomery from a photo lineup as the man who fired the shot.
Mario Calderone testified that the black men were at Leesburg when he and his friends arrived. According to Calderone's testimony, the two groups exchanged words in the parking lot, and one Hispanic was hit. As Calderone reached to pick him up and walk away, he heard shots fired. He also testified he saw a black man take the gun from the trunk of Workman's car.
Two men who were also at the scene were called to the stand. Marty Grove said he heard shots and then saw a man wearing a green running suit fire the gun toward the ground. Eric Struck testified he saw a man in an aqua running suit fire a shot. However, neither man was able to say for certain which car the shooter left the scene in.
The state next called Thomas Lamb III, who says he was in Workman's car the night of Oct. 21. He agreed to testify for the prosecution in an agreement that no charges would be filed against him.
Lamb testified that he and the other passengers were drinking and smoking marijuana the night of the shooting. He said he did not see a gun, but heard someone yell "Pop the trunk" during the fight at Tippy Dance Hall. When the altercation began in Leesburg, Lamb said he heard someone yell that statement again.
Lamb testified under oath that he was walking into the store when he heard gunfire. He said he looked back and saw Montgomery with the gun. Lamb went on to say he saw Montgomery fire the gun one more time.
The state's final witness for the day was Workman. Workman fully testified to identify Montgomery as the shooter in the incident. Kolbe tried to show that Workman had a clear view of the shooting from her car and that she recalled Montgomery was wearing an aqua running suit that night.
The prosecution is expected to call Diaz to the stand and then the doctor who treated Diaz at KCH. The prosecution must prove that Diaz's injuries were serious enough to be called aggravated battery. The prosecution is expected to rest its case this morning. The defense will call its first witness today.
In motions before the jury was called in, Judge Rex Reed ruled that Kolbe could not present Montgomery's previous conviction of criminal recklessness for firing a gun in a crowd in South Bend in 1993. The judge also ruled to suppress the prosecution from trying to say the fights were gang-related. Kolbe said the ruling did not change the way he would handle his questioning.
