Chapter 5 - The Courtroom Verdict
Six weeks later, the Central District Court of California was packed for Jackson Montgomery's criminal trial and divorce proceedings.
Jackson sat at the defense table in an orange county jail jumpsuit, his wrists handcuffed to his waist belt, his arrogant smirk entirely replaced by the hollow, sunken expression of a broken man.
The prosecution played the high-definition security footage recovered from the Montgomery dining room.
The jury watched in stunned, horrified silence as Jackson screamed, hurled the heavy ceramic platter across the table, and watched the plate shatter against my skull while his family continued eating.
The jury deliberated for less than ninety minutes.
"On the count of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury, we find the defendant, Jackson Montgomery, GUILTY," the foreperson announced.
"On four counts of felony bank fraud and grand larceny, we find the defendant GUILTY."
The presiding judge banged her gavel with concussive force.
"Mr. Montgomery, your conduct demonstrates an utter absence of human decency and remorseless greed," the judge declared. "You are sentenced to fourteen years at the Wasco State Prison without eligibility for early parole, and ordered to pay $2.4 million in mandatory restitution."
In the adjacent family court hearing that afternoon, the judge granted an immediate fault-based dissolution of marriage, awarding me one hundred percent of my architectural equity, my Minneapolis condo, and a $1.5 million civil judgment against Jackson's liquidated assets.
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As deputies led Jackson away through the side holding door, he looked back at me, his eyes pleading for mercy.
I turned my back on him and walked out into the California sunshine.
