Mother Testifies About Earlier Attack on Daughter

A few months before college student Katrina Montgomery disappeared under suspicious circumstances in November 1992, she told her mother that skinhead gang member Justin Merriman had tried to sexually assault her.

“She said ‘No’ and told him to stop,” Kathryn Montgomery told a jury Monday, recalling the conversation she had with her 20-year-old daughter the morning after the alleged assault.

Katrina Montgomery got away that night, according to the prosecution, but was attacked months later by Merriman, who allegedly raped her and slit her throat so she could not report the assault to police.

Merriman, 28, is charged with murder, rape and other counts in connection with Montgomery’s slaying. His trial, which carries a possible death penalty, began last week in Ventura County Superior Court before Judge Vincent O’Neill.

Defense lawyers say there is no hard evidence to prove Merriman killed Montgomery. In opening statements, they suggested that someone else connected to Merriman’s white supremacist gang might be the killer.

Kathryn Montgomery took the stand late Monday morning. Katrina Montgomery was the oldest of her three children--a headstrong, pretty redhead who attended Santa Monica College and worked as a waitress at Jerry’s Famous Deli, near her parents’ home in Los Angeles. The family had previously lived in Ventura.

Kathryn Montgomery told jurors that she had a close relationship with her daughter, recalling how Katrina came to her after the alleged sexual assault attempt at Merriman’s home.

Katrina told her that she had gone to the Ventura condominium where Merriman lived with his mother. As she was getting ready to leave, Beverlee Sue Merriman invited her to spend the night rather than drive back to Los Angeles. Her daughter agreed, Montgomery testified, and went to sleep in a guest bedroom.

“She told me she was awoken by Justin, who had climbed into bed with her--and was making sexual advances,” Montgomery testified. “She said she tried to say ‘No,’ and he wouldn’t listen.”

Katrina Montgomery persuaded Merriman to let her use a bathroom, then grabbed her belongings and ran out of the condominium to her truck parked outside. As she drove away, her mother testified, Merriman came outside after her.

In a voice wavering with emotion, Montgomery told jurors that her daughter was shaken by the incident. They sat in her bedroom and talked about it for a long time.

Months later, there would be no such conversations.