Q: Was their an arrest made in the death of LaKishia Montue in 1996? - Tina, Sacramento
A: Stephen Stowers was sentenced on Feb. 3, 2000, to 35 years to life in prison for murdering Montue, his girlfriend, after she received a $1.4 million insurance settlement from a car accident, The Bee reported.
"This was cold-blooded," Sacramento Superior Court Judge James L. Long said of the execution-style slaying of 19-year-old Montue, whose body was discovered by a Meadowview motorist on April 14, 1996.
At Stowers' trial, witnesses said a car crash that killed Montue's 17-month-old daughter led to the million-dollar insurance settlement.
Testimony showed the insurance pact, worked out three months before Montue's murder, provided about $3,000 per month over 30 years.
Weeks after she started receiving the money, Montue left her home and family in Sacramento. She took her then-3-year-old son and moved to Las Vegas to live with Stowers' mother.
Shortly before her murder, evidence showed, Montue completed a divorce from her husband - who was serving time in state prison - and signed a will making Stowers' mother her sole life insurance beneficiary.
Three days later, Montue was dead, her body spotted by a passing motorist along a stretch of Freeport Boulevard north of Meadowview Road.
Montue was killed within 50 minutes after arriving in Sacramento on a red-eye flight from Las Vegas that touched down about 3 a.m.
The judge said there was "overwhelming evidence" to convict the 30-year-old Stowers, including testimony from a jailhouse informant and a man Stowers was accused of attempting to solicit to murder Montue.
Charles Montue, the victim's grandfather, also spoke in court. He told the judge that Stowers made a life out of using women.
"He used and manipulated young women instead of getting a job," Charles Montue said.
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