CHESAPEAKE — Three times in February and March, Kaitlyn Hall saw her next-door neighbor shoot a long gun into a wooded area behind their homes in the Western Branch area, where a hunting tree blind and wildlife camera are set up, according to court documents.
The shots could be heard each time on the audio of one of Hall’s outdoor security cameras, the documents said.
The third occasion happened March 25. Hall’s husband, Gary, called police. The arriving officer heard more rounds fired and went to talk to Gregory Montie, who lives next door, the documents said. Montie told the officer he heard “something.”
Later that day, while the Halls were out, five shots are heard on one of their security cameras. The footage indicated that one of the bullets hit the couple’s pet duck, Libby, in a chicken coop in the backyard. The duck is “seen flopping around in the chicken coop and dies,” the documents said.
Police later found four bullet holes in a fence next to the chicken coop, with protruding wood fragments “clearly indicating” the shots came from the direction of Montie’s residence, the documents said. Libby, however, was nowhere to be found.
Montie was arrested Wednesday and charged with poultry theft, four counts of reckless use of a firearm, entering a property to do damage, destruction of property and animal cruelty. The first charge is a felony and the rest are misdemeanors. A magistrate ordered Montie held without bond. A police SWAT team executed a search warrant at his home after his arrest and seized numerous firearms, including an AR-15 rifle, according to a prosecutor.
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The 40-year-old real estate agent and former Navy sailor appeared Friday in Chesapeake District Court for a bond hearing. Judge Michael Katchmark set a $1,000 secured bond but put off allowing it to be granted while prosecutors appeal his ruling to the Circuit Court. A hearing on the appeal is set for Tuesday. The judge also ordered all guns removed from Montie’s home before he returns and that he have no contact with his neighbors.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Julie Fink showed video of the incident to the judge during the hearing, but it wasn’t displayed for spectators.
The shooting happened about 7 p.m. March 25, according to court documents. About a half-hour later, Montie is seen in his yard looking directly at the Halls’ security camera. About an hour after that, he can be heard on the camera’s audio talking to his wife, the documents said.
The documents said Montie can be heard telling his wife he’s “got to go fix a problem” and that “he called the cops and it escalated.” Seconds later a gate leading to the Halls’ yard can be heard opening and closing, then footsteps on the gravel by the chicken coop. A couple of minutes after that, a camera in the chicken coop is spray painted with black paint. Next, someone can be heard going into the chicken coop.
“This is a very circumstantial case at best,” Montie’s defense lawyer, Eric Plumlee, told Katchmark.
Fink called it a “very strong circumstantial case” and asked the judge to deny bond. Katchmark said that while he agreed with Fink that the allegations were serious, he believed a bond was warranted considering Montie’s clean record, strong ties to the community and cooperation with police.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com