Murder in the Heartland

by M. William Phelps

  But now it seemed something were terribly out of balance with the relationship. Lisa seemed “distant” when he called her. “No ‘I love you,’” said Carl. Lisa wasn’t asking when she could “come out there to be with me. Her whole mood was different.”

  Judy told Carl that Lisa had received a visit in his absence from her former stepfather.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Carl. No way. The man had been out of her life for so long, what purpose would he have calling on her now?

  “He was there, Carl,” Judy swore.

  Carl never believed it.

  Around this same time, Judy and Richard were making plans to drive back to Oklahoma from San Diego. They wanted to bring some of Judy’s belongings home so she could eventually move back. After talking to Lisa a few more times, Carl decided that he needed to be home with her. She seemed “different” and withdrawn, the polar opposite to the person he had left just weeks before.

  Throughout the ride from San Diego to Oklahoma, Judy bad-mouthed Lisa, said Carl. It was as if Judy were trying to convince Carl he should leave Lisa.

  “Yes, many times I would ask [Carl], why do you put up with her?” Judy recalled.

  “For the kids,” Carl would respond.

  “She’s no good,” Carl recalled Judy telling him. “You can’t trust her.”

  “What are you talking about, Judy? What do you mean by that?”

  “She’s messing around on you, Carl.”

  When Carl returned to Oklahoma, he found out Lisa was pregnant again—in fact, several months pregnant. At first, she claimed the baby wasn’t his. But Carl did the math after they received a projected due date and figured out Lisa had become pregnant a few months after she gave birth to Ryan. Carl was working at the prison then, they were still living together. It was well before he took off for San Diego to scout for a place to live.

  Even so, Carl said he allowed Judy to influence his decision to leave Lisa when he returned home.

  “She was heartbroken. But what I didn’t see when I left for San Diego was how much Lisa needed someone to be around her.” He believed she was unfaithful while he was gone. “She felt I had abandoned her when I left.”

  Carl couldn’t get over her infidelity. It hurt too much. So, he left her in Oklahoma and drove back to San Diego with Alicia and Rebecca.

  98

  Judge John Maughmer filed an official order on March 23, 2005, detailing an earlier decision to postpone Lisa’s trial until April 24, 2006, about a year after it was first scheduled. “It would be unreasonable to expect defense counsel to prepare adequately for trial prior to [this date],” the judge wrote. Furthermore, the U.S. Attorney’s Office continued to say it was “leaning toward seeking the death penalty,” but wouldn’t—and couldn’t—make a formal announcement of its intent until September 2005, after obtaining approval from the Department of Justice.

  With a trial date firmly in place and the government likely to pursue the death penalty, Lisa’s defense team went to work on her behalf, noting it was “way too early to determine what kind of defense” to pursue. It could be argued, of course, that Lisa was insane at the time of the crime. Yet with the premeditation and careful planning that the evidence seemed to prove, many agreed an insanity plea would be a tough sell to a jury.

  A plea of “incompetent to stand trial” was another option, but Susan Hunt, one of Lisa’s attorneys, indicated she didn’t see it as a viable argument.

  Lisa seemed to be developing into her own worst enemy. While searching her cell, guards at Leavenworth uncovered a letter, which purportedly placed Lisa in an entirely new light. When her attorneys found out, they asked the judge not to give prosecutors copies of the four documents. Under a routine search, jailers took several pieces of paper from Lisa’s cell, then passed them to the U.S. Marshals Service, who then turned them over to Judge John Maughmer.

  In a court filing, Susan Hunt said she wanted the documents withheld from prosecutors. “Our client asserts the documents must be returned to her, all copies destroyed, and not provided to the government,” Hunt wrote. One of the missives Lisa penned was addressed to Anita, who was an assistant federal public defender working on the case, thus making the letter part of the attorney-client privilege act.

  “This document,” Hunt continued, “was prepared by [Lisa] pursuant to a request of Ron Ninemire, one of the [defense’s] investigators on this case. Mr. Ninemire, in one of his visits, requested [Lisa] write down certain information for use by him and the attorneys in preparing [her] case.”

  Near the end of March, the prison placed Lisa on “suicide watch,” because it felt she had implied in one letter that she might take her life if given the opportunity. After finding a letter in which Lisa talked about killing herself, guards searched her cell and found a “handful,” one source later said, of Thorazine pills she had been hoarding. Because of the discovery, Lisa wasn’t allowed visitors and was put under twenty-four-hour surveillance for about a month.

  Deputy U.S. attorney Matt Whitworth explained in a court filing after the incident that a “corrections officer searched Montgomery’s cell on March 4 and discovered a letter and drugs” she had been hiding. The letter, Whitworth wrote, had “a strong suicidal theme.” Because of it, Lisa was placed on suicide watch and monitored by a psychiatrist, dressed in different clothes, and given a blanket that would be too difficult to use in constructing a noose.

  After the suicide watch was lifted in early April, Lisa called the kids. Carl got on the phone with her. He was tired of Lisa and her evident game-playing. He didn’t want the children to get dragged—once again—into the problems of a person who, he believed, was struggling with a mental illness.

  “What are you doing now, Lisa?” asked Carl.

  “That’s all nonsense,” said Lisa, according to Carl. “I never would have killed myself. The FBI is playing games.”

  “You are really something else, you know that. You’re not bringing the kids into this craziness anymore, Lisa. I am tired of it.”

  “Carl! That’s not what happened. I wouldn’t do that. It’s all a stage show.”

  Carl handed the phone to one of the kids, later recalling how he felt: “She accused [the government] of lying. Reality and accountability were not in Lisa. Why would she continue to lie, even after everyone else knew the truth? I honestly believe she would have thought about it, but Lisa is too selfish to take her own life. She still had hope then that she would get out of everything. After she is convicted, it may be a different story.”

  99

  Carl Boman admitted later he wasn’t a man who could control his temper well. At times, he would “cuss and raise his voice” to Lisa. Things changed for Carl as he grew older and learned how to deal with situations in a more mature way, but early in the marriage, he sometimes was overcome by anger.

  “What are you doing?” raged Carl the day he became convinced Lisa had cheated on him while he was in San Diego looking for a place to relocate the family.

  Lisa started crying. “I didn’t do it, Carl. I didn’t.” She was good at denying the obvious, Carl insisted.

  “Well, I don’t believe you,” said Carl. “We’re done, Lisa. It’s over.”

  After the conversation, Carl packed his belongings in a van, took Alicia and Rebecca, and drove to San Diego without Lisa and Ryan.

  As the spring of 1990 moved along, Lisa had a terrible time making it on her own in Oklahoma. When she realized she couldn’t take care of one-year-old Ryan while working enough hours to pay the bills, she moved into her aunt’s house in south Texas. She was six months pregnant with her fourth child.

  Throughout this time, Lisa and Carl never stopped talking. She still loved him—and, in many ways, he loved her.

  By June, Carl wanted Lisa to move to San Diego at once. Yet, he was not ready to have her move into the apartment he had found. At such an early stage, he couldn’t face Lisa and act as if nothing had happened between them.

  “My father
and Judy still had a place down the block from me,” recalled Carl. “They were divorced, but nobody knew it…and were still living together, moving things back to Oklahoma when they could so Judy could relocate at some point.”

  Lisa moved in with her mother and Richard.

  “Well,” Carl said, “having Lisa move in with her mother was a mistake. Let’s just say it didn’t work out.”

  Lisa started telling Carl that Judy was trying behind their backs to get custody of the children. Carl confronted Judy about it—along with the way she was treating Lisa—and ended up having “a major blowout.”

  “I called her every name in the book. We fought hard that day.”

  Judy later denied this, saying, “Lisa left Carl and came to Richard and me. We took her in because of the kids. She was pregnant with Kayla. I took her to the Welfare Department, and she got on welfare, but only stayed on it maybe a month or less, and then moved right back with Carl.”

  It was clear Judy and Carl saw this part of Lisa’s life through different eyes. Up until that point, Carl and Judy had always gotten along fairly decently. It wasn’t that they played cards together every Saturday night, took long walks with the kids in the park, or sat across form each other at Sunday dinner. But they did appreciate each other’s space and knew where the line was.

  Carl was slowly integrating Lisa back into the fold of the family by “allowing” her to watch Alicia and Rebecca while he worked long hours at his new job as a Wells Fargo security guard. So, to the kids, Lisa was always around. The recent blowout with Judy, however, convinced Carl he needed to have Lisa back in his home.

  Within a month of living together, Lisa gave birth to Kayla, who was born several months premature, on August 18, 1990. During this time, several family crises occurred: Rebecca, only four years old, was in a car accident while riding with her aunt’s boyfriend. She had to be airlifted to the hospital. After she recovered from a broken jaw and dozens of bumps and bruises, she was accidentally hit with a softball. The problems, although quite traumatic, seemed to draw Lisa and Carl closer. The children deserved a mother and father. “And Lisa deserved a second chance.” She was young. Confused. Perhaps even withdrawn, depressed. Judy was, in Carl’s opinion, filling her head with all sorts of stories. In Lisa’s mind, Carl maintained, he had let her down and abandoned her when he took off for San Diego looking for a place to relocate.

  “I couldn’t just turn my back on her,” said Carl, defending why he took Lisa back. “She deserved more from me. I had, in many ways, acted on the ideas and thoughts Judy had poisoned my mind with. I couldn’t live my life based on what Judy was telling me.”

  IV

  GOD IS CALLING

  100

  The state of Missouri acquired its nickname, the “Show Me” state, official literature proclaims, because of the skepticism residents demonstrate. Some citizens throughout the 69,674-square-mile area of the state have labeled themselves “tough-minded demanders of proof,” one document contends. Missourians insist on confirming truth; they want evidence; they want to see facts for themselves before they believe.

  By May 2005, Zeb Stinnett released several statements clearly outlining Victoria Jo’s health status. If anyone had a doubt about the child’s well-being, it was clear from the few photographs Zeb released with his statements she was a happy, healthy baby, who now weighed in at a surprising fifteen pounds eleven ounces.

  In just over five months she had gained almost ten pounds.

  “She has three great loves right now,” Zeb told reporters. “Eating, sleeping, smiling.”

  A reserved man who believed in keeping family matters private, Zeb spoke out because, mainly, he wanted to thank everyone, from reporters to law enforcement to hospital personnel, for their “contribution to Victoria Jo’s safe recovery.” It was obvious Zeb was grateful for what he had, as opposed to being angry over what he didn’t. It didn’t mean Zeb was ready to forgive and forget. But his focus, at least then, was on raising his daughter and providing her with the home she deserved. He had gone back to work at Kawasaki Motors, while Becky Harper and his mother helped with babysitting duties.

  Since Bobbie Jo’s death some five months ago, Zeb said, he had received e-mails, letters, phone calls, and cards from people all over the world offering their blessings and support. “I want everyone to know that my silence in the press is not meant to be misinterpreted as a sign of ingratitude. We are humbled and awed by the kindness that has flooded our lives. There is no way to thank each person who had reached out to us. But I hope you all know that you have given us a priceless gift.”

  101

  Lisa Montgomery emerged in the spring of 2005 with a complete new outlook on life. In a letter to Carl Boman, dated May 26, it was clear from the opening line that Lisa had found Jesus Christ and was now living under God’s word. In the past, she had never expressed a deep-seated belief in God’s word, but Carl and the children were about to meet a woman who had been “saved.” Faced with the confinement of four walls, barbed-wire, and steel toilets, Lisa turned to God and opened her heart to the Lord. She was running her life now under the guidance of the Bible—and, as the family was about to learn, she was as obsessed with it as she had been with having another baby.

  Although Lisa’s words contradicted the behavior she had displayed throughout the past few years, it was clear she was preparing herself for the road ahead. Yet, Lisa was apparently willing to be saved—only if it was on her terms. Besides the doilies and paintings she was working on in prison and sending her children, she was still not ready to be accountable for what she was accused of, or even admit having Bobbie Jo’s baby in her arms when authorities found her.

  Opening the letter, Lisa said she “prayed very hard” for “guidance” on how to “approach” the state of affairs Carl had created.

  That statement in itself, Carl thought, was incredible: I had created this situation? Typical Lisa…here she was trying to turn everything around so as to make herself look good. “She had done it her entire life. The difference now was, I knew what she was doing. Living with her, raising our children, it was hard to see.”

  Next, Lisa said she opened her Bible to Matthew 18:19, quoting the passage: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.” There was only one slight discrepancy in the passage; it was Matthew 18:15.

  “From the letters she has written to me,” Kayla remarked later, “Mom seems like she has found God, but I sometimes wonder. I don’t know why, but I just worry about her sometimes. She hasn’t really ever been religious, although when we lived in New Mexico, when I was in kindergarten, we used to walk a mile (or something like that) every Sunday to go to church. No, she never quoted from the Bible—she does now, though—around the house; and no, she didn’t pressure us into going to church…. I think religion is her ‘crutch’…during her darkest hours. I think so much time alone, and the thought that she might get the death penalty, has made her realize she needs God in her life.”

  “In my opinion,” Judy said later, “Lisa did not express hardly anything of the Lord—until she was, like, behind the bars. I know she went to church in Melvern some, but I think it was because of Kevin’s parents, Kevin, and the kids. If she had her way, she wouldn’t have gone at all…that is my opinion.”

  Further on in the letter, Lisa spoke of the problems she had with Vanessa and the trepidation she had over addressing them. But Jesus had “directed” her to confront Carl “straight” up. It seemed Lisa was under the impression Vanessa was intercepting her letters to the children and “e-mailing them to England.” What purpose Vanessa would have to do such a bizarre thing was never broached. Yet, Lisa demanded it “stop at once.”

  Then again, she maintained, if she had been misguided in any way, she wanted to “apologize” for spouting off about it.

  After that, she reacted to what she had heard was Vanessa’s “cursing” Alicia and
striking her. She wanted to encourage Vanessa, “as the Christian adult role model” in the household, to read James 1:19–20, wherein, Lisa quoted correctly, “…Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

  Concrete walls and the possibility of a death sentence did not dampen the ongoing feud between Vanessa and Lisa. Lisa wanted Carl to make it clear to Vanessa there was no way she could ever replace her as the children’s mother, “and…attempting to do so” would only “alienate” the kids from her more. She wanted Vanessa to listen to the children and “read God’s word” for guidance on how to communicate with them better.

  What is this? Carl wondered while reading.

  Lisa’s newfound piety didn’t sit right with Carl. She was sitting in prison facing murder and kidnapping charges. There were larger issues to worry about at the present time. Was the woman out of her mind?

  Because of the tension between Alicia and Vanessa, Lisa urged Carl later in the letter to think about allowing Alicia “to be emancipated” on her seventeenth birthday, which was about two months away. She demanded Carl treat Alicia as an adult and give her the opportunity to move out of the house. At the same time, Lisa said she would “not agree” to allow “any of the kids” to move in with Judy.

  From there, she went on to advise Carl on the various ways he could “rebuild” his relationship with the kids, especially Alicia.

  “Our God is a God,” she wrote, “of love….”

  Hate wasn’t part of God’s makeup, she said.

  “This is absolutely incredible,” Carl said, reading on, staring at Lisa’s neatly handwritten words.