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Thomas Montgomery, 48, was sentenced earlier this week after he pleaded
guilt to killing 22-year-old co-worker, Brian Barrett outside a Dynabrade
tool factory where the two men worked.
The motive was an online relationship Montgomery established with a West
Virginia woman, identified in court and by prosecutors as Mary Sheiler.
Montgomery and Sheiler, who were miles apart and had never met, both came up
with the same idea: to get online and pretend they were about 30 years
younger than they actually are. They found each other on the Web and fell in
love with each other's fake personas -- which were closer to their
children's ages than their own.
Sheiler reportedly used pictures of her daughter to pretend she was 18 and
flirted with Montgomery, who pretended he was a young U.S. Marine bound for
Iraq. She mailed photos and lingerie to his home outside of Buffalo, and
exchanged steamy messages online.
Montgomery's wife intercepted a package, according to local media reports,
returned the favor with a note explaining that the tool factory worker was a
married man in his late 40s, with two teenage daughters.
Sheiler, who had used the name "Jessica" online, knew the name of Barrett as
one of Montgomery's co-workers at Dynabride and contacted him online to
confirm the facts. She continued exchanging e-mail messages with Montgomery
and Barrett at the same time. Both men apparently continued to believe the
middle-aged woman was an 18-year-old.
Neither man ever met Sheiler, but Barrett ended up dead over the passions
aroused by the older pair's deceit.
Barrett, a Buffalo State College student, was found dead from gunshot wounds
inside his truck, which he had parked outside the tool factory.
Although Montgomery pleaded guilty, he later tried and failed to rescind the
plea and is expected to appeal the case.
Erie County Assistant District Attorney Frank Sedita named old-fashioned
jealousy the motive. But, this time, it definitely had a modern twist.
"You can pretend to be whoever you want to be on the Internet," he said in
an interview Thursday. "And people will do and say strange things to
represent who they are. I certainly don't do any Internet chatting."
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204301241
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