Man accused of killing 4-month-old with battle ax tells Vegas police he blacked out

Suspect in ax slaying tells police he blacked out

LAS VEGAS — A man wielding a medieval-style battle ax wounded his sister-in-law before going on a deadly, random rampage with the weapon outside his Las Vegas home, killing a 4-month-old baby and critically injuring the child’s mother, police said Friday.

Harold E. Montague told police he doesn’t remember the attack. He didn’t know the woman or the boy he is accused of hacking with the blade of the ax during the rampage a little before noon Thursday on a residential street about a mile east of Las Vegas Boulevard, police Lt. Lewis Roberts said.

Montague, 33, also is accused of stabbing his sister-in-law, a mentally disabled woman, more than 20 times with a point of the ax before bursting out of a home into the street.

“We don’t know what set him off,” Roberts said after Montague was interviewed by homicide detectives and taken to the Clark County jail.

“He claims he blacked out. He said he doesn’t remember anything,” Roberts said.

A neighbor said she tried stop Montague as he hacked at the baby in a stroller and attacked the child’s mother.

“I told him to stop. He just reared up and looked at me,” said Teresa Garner, a 52-year-old former hotel worker who said she doesn’t remember Montague saying a word before he returned to swinging the menacing-looking weapon like a golf club.

Garner called 911 and Montague retreated back inside his whitewashed cinderblock home.

Police scuffled with Montague during his arrest, shocking him with a Taser after he emerged from the home empty-handed and taunting them with profanity, according to a police report.

Garner said she thought police also shot Montague with at least one beanbag or rubber shotgun round.

“Four officers were on him, and he still kept fighting,” she said.

Garner said she wanted to help the baby in the overturned stroller next to a widening pool of blood on the pavement, and had to keep his severely wounded and disfigured mother from trying to stand.

“I’m surprised she lived,” Garner said of the woman, identified by police as Sandra Lisset Castro. “Her whole face was gone. She had a big gaping wound on the top of her head.”

“She kept saying, ‘Help my baby! help my baby!’”

Garner said it was obvious the child was already dead. The Clark County coroner reported that 4-month-old Damien Avila-Castro died of multiple head wounds.

Police said Castro was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in very critical condition. Hospital spokeswoman Ashlee Seymour said she had no patient by that name.

In the house, police said they found another victim, Montague’s mentally disabled sister-in-law, in a back bedroom. Police identified the sister-in-law as Monica O’Dazier. She was in fair condition Friday at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, hospital spokeswoman Danita Cohen said.

Police Lt. Lewis Roberts said O’Dazier was stabbed more than 20 times in the legs, torso and stomach with a point of the ax. Two children in the house, ages 2 and 6, were unharmed.

Roberts said investigators believe Montague attacked O’Dazier before bursting into the street and attacking the Castro and her baby shortly before noon Thursday.

Roberts said Montague admitted smoking marijuana, but didn’t say whether he had taken other drugs or alcohol before the rampage. Roberts said he thought Montague’s wife was at work at the time.

Officer Barbara Morgan, a police spokeswoman, said Montague was taken to a hospital before he was jailed, and a blood sample may have been drawn then.

Montague was being held without bail pending a court appearance Tuesday morning on charges of felony murder, attempted murder and attempted murder of a police officer. Court officials said it was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.

One police officer received minor injuries in the scuffle with Montague, said Officer Bill Cassell, a department spokesman. Cassell said that officer did not require medical treatment.

Garner, who lives with her mother, said Montague and his family moved about a year ago into the corner home on a dirt lot.

Roberts described Montague as the caregiver for his sister-in-law, and said he believed Montague moved to southern Nevada in recent years from the San Antonio, Texas, area.

Sarah Thompson, 35, a neighbor who said she used to see Montague at a nearby corner store, said he had memorably wild eyes, always wore a hat or a hooded sweatshirt, and smoked a lot of cigarettes.

Thompson and Garner both said they often saw a boy playing by himself behind the broken wooden fence in the back yard where a pit bull was chained Friday.

Garner said she never met the woman with the stroller, but said she passed by almost daily.