Accomplice in Woman’s Death to Serve 3 Years

Calling it one of the most heinous murder cases he has ever seen, Superior Court Judge Edward F. Brodie on Monday handed down the maximum sentence to a 22-year-old man who helped conceal the 1992 slaying of Katrina Montgomery.

Lawrence Nicassio was ordered to serve three years in state prison, despite pleas by both the prosecutor and defense attorney who said he would surely be killed there after agreeing to testify against a fellow skinhead gang member.

“Because of his cooperation, there is now a contract out for his life,” said defense attorney Darren Kavinoky, urging the judge to keep Nicassio in county jail or under house arrest.

But Brodie was not swayed.

“It is unconscionable what happened in this case,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of carnage and death in my day, and this just goes beyond belief.”

Montgomery, a 20-year-old Santa Monica College student, was allegedly raped, stabbed and bludgeoned with a crescent wrench after leaving an Oxnard party on Nov. 28, 1992.

The case languished unsolved for years. But two years ago, county prosecutors launched another investigation, which led to the arrest of three men. Authorities charged the youngest, Nicassio, with murder. He was just 16 at the time of the crime.

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As his case progressed through juvenile court, Nicassio broke from his fellow skinhead gang members and told prosecutors he did not commit the slaying, but had witnessed it and was too afraid to stop it.

He repeated the story to the grand jury in December, pinning the attack solely on Ventura resident Justin Merriman, 30, who was later indicted on 25 criminal counts, including rape and murder in the Montgomery case.

Last month, Merriman was indicted again for trying to dissuade witnesses from testifying against him. The case broadened last week when prosecutors indicted a woman for conspiring with Merriman to prevent witnesses from taking the stand at his trial.

As prosecutors built their case against Merriman, they also dropped the murder charge against Nicassio. He pleaded guilty last month to a reduced charge of being an accessory after the fact.

That charge comes as a result of a sting operation in which prosecutors caught Nicassio on videotape in November 1997 trying to persuade a woman against testifying truthfully before the grand jury about the murder case.

At Nicassio’s sentencing hearing Monday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh told the judge he was initially skeptical of Nicassio’s story of how Montgomery died.

The former San Fernando Valley skinhead told authorities that he saw Merriman stab Montgomery in the neck as she dressed to leave his house. Nicassio and his cousin, Ryan Bush, were spending the night there after leaving the party.

Nicassio told the grand jury that Montgomery begged Merriman not to kill her, but he beat her in the head with the wrench. Nicassio said Merriman then slit her throat and forced Nicassio and Bush to help him dispose of the body.

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Nicassio told authorities that they dumped her body at Sunset Farms, a rural area near Sylmar that has since been paved over and developed. Her remains have never been found.

Prosecutors could not charge Nicassio for his involvement in covering up the crime in 1992 because the statute of limitations on an accessory-after-the-fact-charge expires after three years.

“Quite frankly, when he first told us that, we didn’t believe him,” Bamieh said of Nicassio’s story. But the prosecutor said the account was supported by other evidence obtained during an eight-month investigation.

Bamieh said Nicassio led authorities to the spot where he and Bush later buried the body--now beneath an industrial park. Nicassio then agreed to wear a wire to record statements from other people connected to the case.

“He has done everything we’ve asked,” Bamieh told the judge. “He has risked his life. Quite frankly, we have put him in situations where if he were found out, he could have been killed.”

Still, Bamieh asked the judge to impose the maximum three-year sentence to be served in county jail, arguing that for nearly six years the defendant lied to authorities.

“The fact is, he tried to help hide a heinous crime,” Bamieh said.

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Nicassio, a thin, pale young man dressed in a faded blue jail jumpsuit, said nothing during the hearing, but previously wrote a lengthy letter to the judge that was included with his probation report. Kavinoky told Brodie his client feels remorse for concealing the crime for so many years.

“I think Mr. Nicassio has suffered more than any of us knows,” Kavinoky said, arguing in favor of a two-year sentence. “He has carried this around for years.”

Nicassio has already spent 19 months in county jail awaiting trial. Although he was ordered by Brodie to serve an additional 17 months in state prison, he could be released sooner based on work credits and good behavior.

If prosecutors have their way, Nicassio may never reach state prison. Bamieh said after the hearing that prosecutors plan to keep him here locally for several months as a potential witness.

They plan to call Nicassio to testify at the upcoming trial of Samantha Medina, the 25-year-old Madera County woman indicted last week for allegedly conspiring with Merriman, whose trial is set for January 2000.

Before Nicassio’s sentencing hearing, Medina was arraigned Monday before Brodie on two charges: conspiracy and witness intimidation. She pleaded not guilty and denied allegations that she was working on behalf of a Ventura-based white supremacist gang. Her trial is set for July 21.