Ex-Alabama
death row inmate Montez Spradley, has been sentenced to nearly
20 years in federal prison on an unrelated gun charge. It was a good thing that
he was arrested, as he most probably will be using the gun to commit murder and
he most probably will become another recidivist killer. His death sentence was
overturned due to legal issue and not because he was factually innocent.
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Montez
Spradley
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Former Death
Row inmate gets nearly 20 years in federal prison for gun charge
Today 2:47 PM
By Carol
Robinson | crobinson@al.com
A former
death row inmate who served time for the 2004 murder of a Mountain Brook Middle
School lunchroom cashier has been sentenced to federal prison on an unrelated
gun charge.
Montez
Vantarus Spradley, 37, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison, according to
a joint announced Monday by Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Jay Town
and ATF Special Agent in Charge Marcus Watson.
“Spradley
spent the last 17 years traveling through the revolving doors of overwhelmed
state courthouses and over-crowded prisons,” Town said. “His next 19 years will be spent locked away in a federal
prison.”
According to
court documents, Tuscaloosa police on March 26, 2019 responded to a domestic
violence call at the apartment where Spradley lived with his girlfriend. They
found her bleeding from a head wound that she received when Spradley struck her
with a pistol during an argument.
Officers
recovered the pistol and a loaded magazine from a bedroom closet at the
residence. When officers arrested Spradley for domestic violence, they found in
his pocket a second magazine containing identical ammunition.
Spradley was
charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty to the
single charge in August 2019. He was sentenced Jan. 9, 2020 by U.S. District
Judge Annemarie Carney Axon sentenced Montez Vantarus Spradley, 37, for being a
felon in possession of a firearm. Spradley pled guilty to the single count
indictment in August 2019.
Town said
Spradley’s sentence was driven by his extensive criminal history, which
included prior convictions for second-degree assault, felony murder,
intimidating a witness, possession of a controlled substance with the intent to
distribute, and possession of a controlled substance.
Spradley had
been sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2008 by former Jefferson County
Circuit Judge Gloria Bahakel in the murder of 58-year-old Center Point resident
Marlene Jason, was shot to death Jan. 9, 2004 when she returned home from
clothes shopping for her grandchildren.
But the
conviction and death sentence were unanimously overturned on appeal when the
Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals found Bahakel improperly allowed video and
surveillance photos and hearsay testimony.
Spradley
eventually pleaded guilty in 2013 to murder and intimidation of a witness in
connection with the slaying of Jason and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He was released in 2015 despite the 10-year sentence because of jail and prison
time credit.
“ATF’s
priority of removing the criminal element that uses firearms in domestic
violence situations is clearly evident with this sentencing,”
Marcus said.
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