Burlington, Vermont - March 22, 2005

33-year old Gerald Montgomery of Burlington showed no emotion when he was brought into the packed courtroom to deny charges of first degree murder and sexual assault.

"Enters pleas of not guilty to 1597 and 1598," said Gerry Schwarz, Montgomery's attorney in Burlington District Court.

Police arrested Montgomery last night ending their two week search for the person who raped and murdered 31-year-old Laura Winterbottom. Police say Montgomery left key DNA evidence at the crime scene which proves he's the killer.

"The DNA profile obtained from specimens recovered at the scene was found to match a convicted offender DNA in the state DNA index system. The individual identified by the code of search was Gerald T. Montgomery," said Chief Tom Tremblay of the Burlington Police Department this morning at a press conference at the police station.

Until today police had revealed only that she was murdered and that she was last seen alive leaving a Church Street bar alone on Tuesday March 8.

Today police revealed Winterbottom was headed to her car parked at Church and College at about 9:30 that night.

One hour later in a Pearl Street parking lot a witness saw what is believed to be Winterbottom's car with steamy foggy windows. Key evidence in the case was later found in that parking lot.

At seven the next morning passers-by discovered Winterbottom's body in her car in a vacant lot on Hyde Street about a half mile from Pearl Street.

Police followed dozens of leads including one provided by Montgomery himself, the day after the body was found.

"Mr. Montgomery interjected himself into the investigation by calling a tip indicating that an acquaintance of his may have been involved in some sort of criminal activity on the night of Miss Winterbottom's death. Mr. Montgomery suggested that criminal activity could have been the murder," said Tremblay.

The ploy backfired when police discovered instead that Montgomery is a convicted sex offender.

Like all sex offenders, Montgomery's DNA profile is on permanent file with the state crime lab. Yesterday the lab technicians compared the DNA found in Laura Winterbottom's car and on her person to Montgomery's and police say it was a perfect match.

"There is no reason whatsoever that his seminal fluid should be found in the victim's car. It was. The defendant claimed he had no knowledge of the victim, yet his seminal fluid... there's no innocent explanation for it at all," prosecutor Bob Simpson told the judge during Montgomery's arraignment.

Prosecutors want to confirm their DNA evidence and have obtained a court order requiring Montgomery to provide a sample of his saliva. However, his lawyers today indicated they might fight that court order.

Police also revealed today that Montgomery's wife called them because she believes he's the killer. She told police that he came home on the night of the murder with a blood stain on his arm and a talked about having robbed someone and immediately washed and bleached all of his clothing. Ironically, the one piece of clothing he has apparently continued to wear are his boxer shorts which were taken as evidence by police last night when they arrested him.

Brian Joyce - Channel 3 News