Killing frightened neighborhood even
before suspect was named
By Andy Netzel
Free Press Staff
Writer
For two weeks, Kerri Bartlett has been nervous
about walking alone along Burlington's Manhattan Drive in the
Old North End. A woman was killed a few blocks away. She was
scared.
Bartlett took precautions any time she went
outside, even to see her sister just a half a block away. She
would meet her sister halfway so they could see each other's
homes as they walked.
That halfway point is in front of
a murder suspect's home.
Gerald Tyrone Montgomery lived
in the duplex with his wife and children, across the street
from H.O. Wheeler Elementary School. Montgomery pleaded not
guilty Tuesday to raping, strangling and killing Burlington
resident Laura Winterbottom.
Neighbors also learned for
the first time Tuesday that Montgomery is a registered sex
offender.
Learning her neighbor was in custody brought
Bartlett no relief. It only made her more upset.
"I
don't like how the police said it wasn't a random act, but it
obviously was," she said. She said it is disturbing that she
lived down the street from a sex offender and a murder
suspect. "He's been walking up the street for two weeks
smiling and laughing. How can you be that
sick?"
Several people in the neighborhood voiced
frustration about the police's handling of the case. Police
have not ruled whether the killing was random, but the
investigative officer wrote in court documents that he has
found no connections between Montgomery and
Winterbottom.
Montgomery was well known in the Old
North End neighborhood, although few people knew his name. He
was just known as "Wisdom" to some. Others said they had
received angry phone calls during the past few years from his
wife, trying to track down her husband. She would ask for her
husband by the names Gerald, Tyrone, Wisdom and Jamal,
neighbors said.
Rick Tyler, 20, said Montgomery
regularly entered his house without knocking. He lives two
doors down from the Montgomerys. Montgomery was still coming
in last week, hitting on his wife, staring at his pregnant
cousin and making phone calls, Tyler said.
"He was just
a creepy guy," Tyler said. "It was getting to the point that I
was going to ask him to stay away."
Tyler said the day
the news of the killing was on television, Montgomery came in
to Tyler's house shortly after the story aired. He ignored the
television and tried to pull Tyler aside to talk to him. Tyler
snubbed him. A private conversation usually meant Montgomery
would try to talk him into doing something illegal, Tyler
said.
Krystal Tyler, Rick's wife, said she never would
have let him in the house if she had known of his past.
Montgomery had been charged with rape. He was convicted of
lewd and lascivious conduct in 1996 and of failing to register
as a sex offender a couple of years later.
Police would
have told Krystal Tyler that she lived near a sex offender
only if she mentioned Montgomery by name. Police did not
notify the neighborhood ahead of time because the crime
Montgomery was convicted of was not severe enough to trigger
notification.
"He was in my house," Krystal Tyler said,
looking around her kitchen. "My house."
Rick Tyler grew
up on Manhattan Drive -- a street lined with older,
wood-frame, rented homes, children playing and late-model
cars. He said the neighborhood has gone from a quiet,
close-knit community to an increasingly scary strip of shady
characters.
The neighborhood changed overnight for
79-year-old Claire Prim. She locked herself in her home
Tuesday after hearing the news that her neighbor was a murder
suspect. The windows were locked. The door was bolted. Even
the storm door was secured.
A knock at the door means
peering through the blinds. If she doesn't know the person,
she doesn't answer the door. Monday, she said, she didn't
worry about any of her neighbors.
"I felt like I could
leave my door unlocked," she said. "I don't dare do it now. I
don't know who is in my neighborhood."
Contact Andy Netzel
at 660-1867 or anetzel@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Personal safety tips
Trust your instincts. If someone
or something doesn't feel right, get away to a public place or
attract the attention of other people.
Pay attention to
your surroundings.
Travel in groups.
Report suspicious
behavior to the police.
Check your car before you get in
-- inside, outside and under.
Consider taking a
self-defense class.
Minimize the places around your home,
apartment or residence hall where a person could hide, such as
tall plantings and bushes.
Always lock your doors and
windows.
Be wary of people who don't respect your
boundaries, even about little things.
Assistance for
victims and additional information are available on 24-hour
confidential hot lines at:
Women's Rape Crisis Center:
863-1236
Women Helping Battered Women:
658-1996
Or during business hours at:
SafeSpace:
863-0003 or toll-free in Vermont (866) 869-7341; 9 a.m.-9 p.m.
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday and
Friday.
UVM Victim's Advocate: 656-7892; 8 a.m.-4:30
p.m. Monday-Friday.
Source: Women's Rape Crisis Center
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