4 years after deadly shooting, Kentucky man found guilty of murdering his wife

For four years, Joshua Descoteaux and his family have awaited the trial for the man accused of murdering his sister, Jennifer Montgomery, 27.

On Monday, the murder trial began for Montgomery’s husband, Colin Montgomery, a 33-year-old Danville resident. He shot and killed his wife in March 2018. On Wednesday, a Boyle County jury found him guilty of murder.

Montgomery was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Thursday. He could’ve faced a life sentence.

Colin Montgomery’s defense team asked the jury to find him guilty of manslaughter. That would’ve led to a sentence of 17 years. They argued their client was under extreme emotional distress at the time of the shooting.

Descoteaux told the Herald-Leader this was the justice his family had sought. He said he felt very grateful and relieved after the verdict was read.

“We went through the horrible process of a trial because we believed he committed murder against my sister,” Descoteaux said. “His defense came to us multiple times with manslaughter and 17 years, but we never backed down.”

Wednesday, Colin Montgomery’s defense team argued he was under extreme emotional disturbance when he shot and killed his wife with their two young children in the home, ages 7 and 1 at the time.

The defense, led by Andrew Long and Nathan Shirley, said the defendant lost all control when he found his wife was taking part in an alleged extra-marital affair.

But prosecutors said the arguments didn’t prove emotional disturbance. One prosecutor said in court that Colin Montgomery called his mom and spoke to her for several minutes between the time he found out about the affair and the time he shot and killed his wife. The couple had also successfully filed for divorce before the shooting.

“This is not a situation where he caught her in bed, ... that is not what happened,” said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Richard Bottoms. “She made a simple statement when he kept asking her if she was seeing someone and based on that, (the defense) wants you to think it was reasonable for Colin to shoot his wife with three buckshot shells from a shotgun.”

To prove extreme emotional disturbance, the defendant must have suffered a profound loss of self-control. Whatever the emotion, whether it’s sadness, anger, fear, or any other, it must be very intense. There also must be a reasonable explanation for suffering this extreme emotion.

The sole evidence presented to the jury by defense attorneys was an interview between the couple’s son and a child advocate.

In the video interview, the son tells the advocate he heard his mom saying she was in love with another man, and recalls his dad, Colin Montgomery, questioning “Who?”

“Mommy said ‘I am in love with another man,’ and daddy was shouting, ‘Who? Who?’ …He said he was going to kill her, and he got the gun, went outside and said, ‘Get out of my house,’ and shot her,” the son said in the video.

Following the son’s video interview, defense attorneys called their only witness, Michael Dukes, who admitted to the court he had a secret affair with Jennifer Montgomery for approximately two weeks leading up to her death.

Dukes said he and Jennifer worked together, but he was an acquaintance of Colin, whom he went to middle school with.