Teen Testifies Against, and for, His Brother

A minute after Matthew Montejo finished testifying that his brother killed and dismembered their mother, the youth was led back into the courtroom Monday -- this time to testify on his sibling’s behalf.

Montejo, who testified in a Santa Ana courtroom that Jason Victor Bautista killed their mother and cut off her head and hands and got him to help dump the body, told jurors Monday that his brother had been a victim of their mother’s cruelty, repeatedly beaten and threatened.

Their mother, he said, beat Bautista with a hockey stick, forced him to sleep outside and once tied him to a chair with an extension cord, then threatened him with a kitchen knife.

“We were both scared of her,” said Montejo, now 17. “She said she would kill us any time we said we were going to call the police.”

Bautista, accused of strangling Jane Bautista and dismembering her in their Moreno Valley apartment then dumping her torso off an Orange County highway, has said through his lawyer that he killed his mother in a rage after enduring years of abuse.

Prosecutor Michael Murray believes that Jason Bautista, now 22, had planned the killing for months after becoming irritated at how her mental illness interfered with his life. Chopping off her head and hands to mask her identity, police say, was inspired by an episode of “The Sopranos.”

Jane Bautista, who was 41 when she was killed Jan. 14, 2003, had become increasingly paranoid as an adult, family members and childhood friends testified Monday.

She would complain that her house was bugged, that people were stalking her and that the entertainment industry had mounted a conspiracy against her, said former friend Cathy Atchison, who still lives near the Illinois town where Bautista grew up.

“I told her to go to the police,” Atchison testified. “She said they were paying off the police. I didn’t know what else to do for her.”

Montejo testified Thursday that his brother had mentioned killing their mother at least a year before she died and that he planned to start an argument with her so he could justify it as self-defense.

The brother, who was originally charged with murder but will probably have his charges reduced and be freed after Bautista’s trial, asked the judge Monday to move him to another facility for his safety. He testified that Bautista had called him a snitch in front of other inmates.

Montejo said that while the brothers were housed within 20 feet of each other in the courthouse cells for inmates awaiting trial, they had their first extended conversation since he agreed to testify against Bautista.

Between talk of Rolling Stone magazine, their family and a terrorist warfare computer game called Counter Strike, Bautista brought up Montejo’s testimony.

“What do they do to snitches over there?” Montejo said Bautista yelled.

Since at least three other inmates were listening, Montejo said, he asked to be moved to a different facility, a request his lawyer said would be granted.

“It’s bad to be known as a snitch?” prosecutor Murray asked in court after Montejo relayed the incident to the 11-woman, one-man jury.

“Yes” Montejo answered. “Things happen to you.”