Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 05.20.24

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

Furniture store Arson kills two. Teens wreak havoc at California maid service.  For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. Phoenix firefighters respond to a call about a fire at a furniture store. Once the blaze is out, a neighboring business owner gives police surveillance footage of how the fire started. It shows Katisha Smith handing something to a man who sets it on fire and throws it through the store's window. Cops later discover two bodies in the building. A medical examiner has not been able to identify them, but determines they were alive when the fire started. Nancy Smith claims she was forced to participate in the arson

by the man accompanying her on the surveillance video. Maricopa County sheriffs are still searching for that suspect. The building was completely destroyed by the fire. One victim was recovered the night of the arson and the second found the next day. The building was completely destroyed by the fire. One victim was recovered the night of the arson, and the second found the next day. The victims have yet to be publicly identified. Cops still on the hunt for Smith's accomplice, but for now, Katisha Smith charged with arson and two counts of murder. Three teens break into a California maid service,

pink sponge home cleaning, and wreak havoc. The teens kick out the headlights on 18 of 25 service cars, carve into the paint, and force the windows down to get inside the cars. They break open a door to the business, then spray and dump cleaning supplies everywhere. Some of the chaos caught on surveillance video. While one of the teens sprays a fire extinguisher everywhere, two others stand on the hood of a car, twerking. The trio's ringleader, a 15-year-old from Laverne, has been caught and charged with criminal mischief. California cops hope her cell phone will lead to the other two vandals. I hope they get everything cleaned up.

More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Lindley. A minimum of 56 years in prison has been handed down for murder and other counts. This against a father from New Hampshire found guilty of killing his five-year-old daughter and moving her body from place to place for months in an effort to dispose of it. In court, the child's relatives referring to the man as a monster. For more, we turn to Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. The minimum 32-and-a-half-year sentence that 34-year-old Adam Montgomery began serving last

year on unrelated firearms crimes will be combined with the new sentence, making his actions in harmony Montgomery's killing practically a life sentence. Nearly two years before she was even reported missing in 2021, police suspected she had been killed. Her remains have never been located. In exchange for Montgomery providing the location of his daughter's remains, the prosecutor had promised to reduce Montgomery's sentence for the second degree murder conviction and additional crimes. In the Manchester courtroom, Montgomery remained silent, continuing to maintain his innocence as it relates to his daughter's death. Later, his lawyer referred to the offer as a stunt and claimed that Montgomery's silence should not be taken to mean that he doesn't feel regret.

Montgomery did not appear for his February trial. His attorney had requested that Montgomery be excused from attending his sentencing, but the judge ordered him to appear in court. Montgomery had also entered a not guilty plea to counts of witness tampering and second-degree assault. He did plead guilty to abuse of a corpse and fabricating evidence. Judge Amy Messer stated that Montgomery had a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2008 and that he had a number of chances to turn his life around. The case of Harmony Montgomery has uncovered numerous weaknesses in child protection systems and has sparked demands that parents should relinquish custody of their children in favor of the children's welfare. Harmony was moved several times between her foster parents and her mother's home before

Adam Montgomery was granted custody in 2019 and relocated to New Hampshire. Authorities intend to continue looking for the girls' remains, which are thought to be located along the route that Adam Montgomery took into Massachusetts in March 2020 while driving a rental truck. Investigators recently conducted a search a few weeks ago, but prosecutor Benjamin Agati stated that they were unsuccessful. Now to Wisconsin, as a Milwaukee woman who claimed she was legally permitted to kill a man because he was sexually trafficking her has now pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless homicide. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. Crystal Kaiser's choice spares her from a trial and potential life sentence. It also raises

questions about whether a state provision protecting victims of sex trafficking from prosecution for crimes committed during their trafficking encompasses homicide as well. The prosecutors in her case claim that in 2018, at the age of 17, Kaiser shot 34-year-old Randall Volar at his Kenosha, Wisconsin, residence. After that, they claimed she stole the man's BMW and set fire to his residence. A number of charges were brought against her, including auto theft, arson, first-degree intentional homicide, and possessing a firearm by a felon. The now 23-year-old Kaiser claimed to have met Vollar through a website that deals in sex trafficking. She contended that during the year preceding his death, he had been

abusing her and selling her as a prostitute. Detectives were told by Kaiser that she shot Volar as he attempted to touch her. Kaiser entered a guilty plea to a charge of second-degree reckless homicide during her most recent hearing, this according to online court records. The other charges were dropped by the prosecution. Kaiser is set to be sentenced August 19th by Circuit Judge Michael Wilk in Kenosha County. Thanks, John. Juan Carrillo, a veteran suffering from Alzheimer's, frequently takes his purple bike to run errands around San Benito, Texas. When he doesn't come home after a few hours, his wife worries.

She searches his usual spots, including McDonald's and Walmart, can't find him. Police canvass a small city, checking his childhood home, old schools, wooded areas near his home. No sign. Juan left his meds and cell phone he shares with his wife, but did have his wallet and about $200 cash. Juan last seen wearing a black veteran's hat, a long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. If you have info on Juan Carrillo, now missing almost a year, please call San Benito, Texas PD 956-361-3880. For the latest crime and justice news, go to CrimeOnline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.