Editor’s Note: This story includes mention of sexual assault. Resources are available here.
Eric Montgomery was sentenced 10 years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to rape, a level three felony, March 13. This is his second guilty rape judgment, which he’ll serve concurrently with the first sentence.
In his allocution statement, Montgomery said he was remorseful for the crimes he had committed. He first apologized to the courts, then to the victims’ families.
In August 2021, Montgomery raped his neighbor in Ellettsville, who then reported the crime to the Ellettsville Police Department and filed a rape kit examination at IU Health Hospital. The probable cause affidavit said Montgomery was distraught about a family member’s death and sought consolation from the neighbor, who allowed him to enter her home. Montgomery then forced himself on the victim. He is 6’5 and 260 lbs, according to court documents, and the victim was afraid to physically resist him.
In August 2022, Montgomery raped Avery McMillan, who was a 20-year-old IU student, shortly before her death ruled a fentanyl overdose. McMillan was intoxicated and locked out of her apartment early that morning when she entered Montgomery’s car.
He gave McMillan alcohol and marijuana and drove her to his home, where he lived with his mother, stepfather and 8-year-old son. Montgomery reported that he and McMillan had sex, that McMillan had difficulty breathing and he woke to her dead body next to him in his bed.
The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office charged Montgomery with rape, a level three felony, and furnishing alcohol to a minor, a level six felony, on Aug. 30, 2022.
Three days later, an Ellettsville Police Officer obtained Montgomery’s DNA sample, which matched the sample provided by the rape kit from 2021. On Jan. 6, 2023, another rape charge was filed regarding Friday’s case.
On June 30, 2023, a Monroe County jury found Montgomery guilty of raping McMillan, furnishing alcohol to a minor, as a class A misdemeanor and obstruction of justice, a level six felony. On Aug. 4, 2023, he received a 17-year sentence for the three counts and an enhanced sentence for 19 years after he admitted to being a habitual offender.
According to Indiana Code, the state may seek to have a person sentenced as a habitual offender for a felony by alleging that the person has accumulated the required number of prior unrelated felony convictions.
In 2009, Montgomery was charged with three murder counts, a robbery count and a burglary count, and he was found not guilty by a jury in 2010. Between 2011 and 2015, he was charged with two class A felony drug dealing offenses, two class B felony burglary offenses and a level six felony intimidation offense. He pled guilty to all five felony charges.
On Friday he had 817 actual days served for the 2021 rape. His 10-year prison sentence will be served simultaneously with the 36-year sentence from the McMillan case.
A list of resources is available here if you or someone you know has experienced sexual harassment or abuse.
