James Byron Montgomery mistakenly believed the Las Vegas advertising campaign that boasts what happens there, stays there.
When he married Tiffiney Still in May 2007 without first divorcing his third wife, the act took the unemployed truck driver from Vegas’ Little White Wedding Chapel to the wrong side of the law. A McLennan County, TX grand jury indicted the Moody resident Wednesday for bigamy, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Montgomery, who was arrested on the charge in March, remained free on bond Wednesday. “I used to drive a truck, and me and my fiancée, Tiffiney, were in Vegas and we just, like, got a wild hair,” Montgomery said Wednesday. “We knew it was against the law. We just really didn’t feel married. We just, like, did it. I didn’t really think it was going to be a real marriage.”
Montgomery’s other wife, Rebecca, however, apparently considered his most recent nuptial a very real marriage and reported it to the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, according to a complaint filed against Montgomery by Deputy Brian Seymore. The deputy arrested Montgomery after confirming that he was married to more than one woman at the same time.
Montgomery said he filed for divorce in May 2007, adding that he and Rebecca Montgomery, who reportedly is living now in Palestine, Texas, had been separated for about four months when he and Tiffiney got married.
A telephone listing for Rebecca Montgomery in Palestine was out of service Wednesday.
“I wish they would go after real criminals instead of people who fall in love,” Montgomery said. “I know what I did wasn’t right. But when me and Tiffiney met, I had never loved anybody in my entire life the way I love her. You can’t find love every day like this. She is a wonderful woman.”
Still, Montgomery, who has been unemployed for five months and says he can’t afford to pay for a lawyer, can’t explain why he didn’t wait until he was divorced. “I wouldn’t change nothing,” he said.
By Tommy Witherspoon of The Tribune-Herald
Recent Comments