Man gets 20 years in Internet Triangle Killing

[Janice]

http://www.syracuse.com/newsflash/state/index.ssf?/base/international-0/11961980547170.xml&storylist=state



VIDEO: http://www.mediascrape.com/News/ViewNewsItem.aspx?rootVideoPanelType=1&newsItemId=36122

Man gets 20 years in Internet triangle killing

BUFFALO, New York (AP) — A 48-year-old man entangled in an Internet love triangle built largely on lies was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for killing his romantic rival.

Thomas Montgomery, who posed as an 18-year-old U.S. Marine in online chats, pleaded guilty in August to gunning down Brian Barrett, 22, in a parking lot at the factory where they worked.

The motive was jealousy, investigators said. Both were involved online with a middle-aged West Virginia mother — who told them she was an 18-year-old student.



Assistant District Attorney Frank Sedita argued for the maximum sentence of 25 years, describing Montgomery's "almost predatory" pursuit of the woman and his resentment of Barrett when she cooled to Montgomery's advances after 1 1/2 years and thousands of pages of Internet chats.

"The chats reveal an obsessive desire to make Brian Barrett suffer," Sedita said.

Barrett, a college student, was shot three times at close range in the neck and left arm after climbing into his truck at the end of a shift in 2006. His body was found two days later by a co-worker.

"My wife and I don't understand how this could happen, how such evil could walk the earth," Barrett's father, Daniel, said at the sentencing hearing. "To gun down a boy over simple jealousy does not make sense to us."

Montgomery's lawyer said fantasy and reality blurred for the then-married father of two teenage daughters.

"Until September 2006, this was a man who held his head high," attorney John Nuchereno said. "By September 2006, call it an obsession, call it an addiction, call it what you want, he was suffering from a diminished capacity of some sort."

Montgomery, now divorced, attempted suicide after his arrest. He chose not to speak at his sentencing.

Montgomery began chatting with the woman, identified in court as Mary Sheiler, in 2005. Occasionally, the woman would mail packages to his home. When one of the packages was intercepted by Montgomery's wife, she wrote back and told Sheiler her husband's true age and that he was married.

Barrett, who Montgomery had mentioned in his exchanges, was drawn into the triangle after the woman contacted him online to confirm what she had been told by Montgomery's wife.

A telephone listing for Sheiler was disconnected when dialed Tuesday.

Justice Penny Wolfgang called the situation a "consequence of misuse of the Internet."

"All of this for absolutely no reason," she said.

[OH Nuts!]

Sad & tragic for the poor victim's family. This is why I'm still leary of computers.

I guess I'm just an old codger, but I don't get all this nonsense abt love over the Internet. I'm very visceral--I like meeting people in person. I have a lot of interests (well, a few passionate ones) & have always found this a great way to meet people & date.

To say the least, the perp is crackers....and evil.