WEST CHESTER, Ohio — Charges were dropped against 33-year-old Courtney Montgomery after a police investigation revealed he may not be the party to blame for a shooting that left a woman wounded in a West Chester apartment on Wednesday.
Montgomery will be freed from police custody after a judge ruled Friday afternoon that all charges against him be dismissed because investigators and prosecutors said they discovered conflicting evidence in the case.
"I didn't want none of this," Montgomery said in Butler County's Area III Court. "I didn't ask for none of this ... I didn't ask for this."
Officers initially responded to The Highlands of West Chester apartment complex on the 6700 block of Fountains Boulevard at around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday following a report of a woman shot.
In calls to 911, people in the apartment claim the woman didn't know the man who shot her, but said he came into the apartment with a gun. They said they tried to wrestle the gun away from him and the caller said one woman was shot in the back.
"He came in, guessing he came into the wrong building," the caller said. "He had a gun, so we tried to wrestle him."
According to investigators, three people were in the apartment at the time of the shooting: A 25-year-old woman was shot and there was also a 22-year-old woman and a 4-year-old who were unharmed.
Montgomery was arrested just before 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday and was charged with aggravated robbery and felonious assault. His attorney, Clyde Bennett, said on Friday that Montgomery was the victim of a setup.
Bennett said his client went to the apartment to meet a woman for a romantic encounter, but when he arrived a gun was put in his face and two women tried to rob him in front of a 4-year-old girl.
Montgomery, who was also armed when he came to the apartment, shot one of the women in self-defense before taking the woman's gun and fleeing, Bennett said.
"It's just the opposite of what was portrayed by the police department and what was portrayed by the media," Bennett said. "He's very upset. He's nervous. He's scared. He understands his peril. He's looking at decades in prison for something that he did not do."
Barb Wilson, spokesperson for West Chester police said, following further investigation into the incident, the police agency requested that the Butler County prosecutors drop all charges Montgomery faces.
"After Courtney Montgomery was located and arrested, detectives continued their work and uncovered new evidence that showed the incident was not a home invasion as it was originally reported to 911 and responding officers," said Wilson in a press release. "Investigators have confirmed Mr. Montgomery was the man involved in the shooting, but other descriptions of his actions were found to be inaccurate."
A grand jury will still meet to look over the evidence collected in the case; it's unclear whether either of the women in the apartment will face charges in the future.
