voiceofreason
Senior News Editor since 2011
Accused killer dragged out of court weeks ago. Now, a judge orders him dragged back in
Garin "Gary" Roberts is accused of murdering his longtime girlfriend after years of domestic violence.
www.syracuse.com
Accused killer dragged out of court weeks ago. Now, a judge orders him dragged back in
Updated: Sep. 02, 2021, 10:40 a.m
Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse murder suspect had to be dragged out of court in July after launching into a tirade during a court appearance over a psych exam.
Now, Garin “Gary” Roberts will be ordered dragged back into court next week after a grand jury indicted him in the murder of his longtime girlfriend, Kathleen Montreal, 51.
County Court Judge Matthew Doran, who had heard enough during Roberts’ July 23 outburst, now needs Roberts back in court to personally hear the charges against him -- as required by law.
Roberts refused to come over from the jail Thursday morning, the judge noted. But the defendant has to be present at an arraignment for a murder charge. So the judge signed a use-of-force order directing jail deputies to use whatever tools necessary to get Roberts into court next week.
Roberts is accused of beating and stabbing Montreal to death in May inside a Far West Side home in Syracuse.
That came after a long history of domestic violence and Roberts’ own life of criminal behavior.
Before Montreal’s death, Roberts had already been arrested once for choking and assaulting her. He was indicted for trying to scare her into not talking to police investigators about his crimes.
At least twice, Roberts violated court orders directing him not to hurt or harass his girlfriend. In the end, police say, he killed her.
Montreal, a mother of five and a grandmother, was found dead May 8 inside her Far West Side home. The 51-year-old woman had been stabbed in the neck, police said, and left to bleed to death in her Milton Avenue apartment.
Two partial orders of protection were active at the time of Montreal’s death, Onondaga County First Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio has said. The orders allowed the pair — who were still together — to talk, but prohibited Roberts from alarming or attacking Montreal, he said.
Those court orders were in place around 2:40 a.m. on May 7 when Roberts attacked Montreal inside her 1215 Milton Ave. apartment, detectives said in a felony complaint filed in Syracuse City Court.
Roberts, armed with a “deadly weapon,” stabbed her in the neck and leaving her to bleed to death, police said. An autopsy showed Montreal also had trauma on her head, abdomen, face and back, police said.
Roberts, 55, has already served time in state prison for rape and robbery. He is a registered sex offender with 19 convictions that spans three decades, police said, and has appeared repeatedly in Onondaga County’s domestic violence court.
Roberts raped a 23-year-old woman in Syracuse in November 1984, according to the state’s sex offender registry. For the sexual assault, he was rated a level-three sex offender — considered to pose the worst risk of reoffending.
Roberts faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of murder. He also faces accusations that he tampered with a cell phone and hid evidence in a garage during the crime. A second indictment accuses him of failing to register a change of address as a sex offender.
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Kathleen Marie Montreal
Syracuse, New YorkJune 1, 1969 - May 8, 2021
