Former Fugitive Convicted in Kidnap, Sexual Assault of Restaurant Employee

April 29, 2022 - An East Memphis man who was a fugitive for nearly four years was convicted Friday of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a restaurant server in his home in 2014, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A Criminal Court jury convicted Kelvin Montgomery on counts of especially aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual battery. He remains in custody and will be sentenced next month.

Montgomery, 55, a self-employed appliance repairman, met the 35-year-old victim the evening of June 15, 2014, at an East Memphis restaurant where she worked. She agreed to have a drink with him, but said that when they got to his house on Willow Road he became violent.

The woman said Montgomery handcuffed, gagged and choked her before forcing her to have sex. She said she pretended to be unconscious and that when he fell asleep in the bed, she managed to escape and ran to a neighbor’s for help.

Montgomery was arrested five days later and was freed on $100,000 bond the next day. In July of 2016, he pled guilty in court to a series of criminal charges and received a 12-year sentence, but a judge gave him 30 more days of freedom before he had to surrender and begin his incarceration.

Instead of surrendering, however, Montgomery fled the jurisdiction and lived on a sailboat in an Orange Beach, Ala., marina under an assumed name until federal marshals captured him in June of 2017. An Arkansas woman who was with him had been reported missing by her family.

The woman said Montgomery made her use a false name, was abusive to her, and would not let her leave, but she declined to press charges.

Montgomery pled guilty in 2018 in an Alabama federal court to possession of a firearm by a prohibited person (a fugitive from justice.) He was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, then was returned to the Shelby County Jail.

The trial this week was handled by Chief Prosecutor Eric Christensen of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit (SVU) and by Chief Prosecutor Carrie Bush of the District Attorney’s Vertical Team 4.

The SVU prosecutes cases of rape, child sexual abuse, severe physical abuse of child victims, elder abuse and vulnerable adult abuse.

Vertical Team 4 prosecutes cases in General Sessions Division 12 and in Criminal Court Division 4.