WINONA — A Winona man who authorities say left a bar with a couple, then assaulted them at their home and stole a camera, has been sent to prison.
Michael Calvin Montgomery, 26, was charged after the assault with two counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of third-degree assault and one count of second-degree burglary, all felonies, as well as one count of misdemeanor theft.
He pleaded guilty in October to the third-degree counts; in exchange, the remaining charges were dismissed.
Winona County District Court Judge Jeffrey D. Thompson on Wednesday sentenced Montgomery to 30 months in prison, with credit for 130 days served.
The charges stem from an incident Aug. 6, when Winona police were called to a home for a report of an assault.
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The victims, a man and woman who lived there, were both injured and bleeding, the complaint says, but were intoxicated and couldn't provide a great deal of information. They did, however, indicate their attacker was a man they knew as "Jo Jo," a man they'd met that night at a bar.
Later that day, the victims were able to recount the events, giving police a description of "Jo Jo" — later identified as Montgomery — who they'd invited to their home to shoot pool after the bar closed. Once there, Montgomery began to look for a phone charger, they said, at one point entering the bedroom of the victims' daughter.
The daughter told her mother that Montgomery had touched her inappropriately, court documents say, so the girl's father told Montgomery to leave. The next thing the man knew, he was waking up on the porch.
The woman told officers Montgomery had punched the man in the face, knocking him unconscious, then continued punching him in the face and kicking him in the body before leaving.
The man reportedly suffered a broken jaw, broken nose and two broken teeth as a result of the assault.
They later discovered their daughter's camera was missing from a kitchen counter.
Montgomery was identified by a bartender; surveillance video from the bar that night shows him with the two victims.
Montgomery was arrested a few days later on another matter, according to the criminal complaint; during the course of that investigation, his roommate told officials that sometime during the last week a camera had appeared at their residence. Montgomery said a friend had given it to him.
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There were no photos on the camera's storage card, but when officers ran an image recovery software program on it, they allegedly found several photos of the female victim and her daughter.
Montgomery initially denied knowing the victims, going to their house or assaulting them, but eventually admitted going to their home to play pool, the report says. He claimed both of the victims "rushed" him, and he was "tussling" with them both.
According to the criminal complaint, he said he hit both of them once, and took the camera as he left because he was mad.
