Duluth Judge Rules Serial Break-In Suspect Incompetent to Stand Trial
DULUTH, Minn. – A judge rules that the suspect in a series of violent break-ins last November is incompetent to stand trial.
For three days in November, Duluth Police were attempting to catch the perpetrator of brazen home invasions in the Woodland neighborhood. Police arrested and charged 59-year-old Jeffery Scott Montana with five felony counts, that together, could carry up to 100 years in custody.
According to police reports, officers were called to the first incident on the 200 block of West Kent Road around 6:00 p.m. on Nov. 4. The 80-year-old male resident told police that a man had knocked on his door, and when he answered, the man pushed his way inside. The man allegedly asked for money and according to the report, brandished and pointed a firearm towards the homeowner.
On Nov. 5, police received a call from a couple in their 80s at the 1500 block of Vermillion Road, just minutes away from the previous home. The couple reported that a man had rang their doorbell and asked for a piece of paper to write down a phone number. When the male homeowner went to get paper, the man followed him inside and then struck him over the head with a club. The homeowners told police that the man demanded money and forced both of them into the basement, where he struck them over the head with the club.
Multiple 911 calls reported the incident on Nov. 6, near the 2500 block of East 2nd Street. The 70-year-old homeowner told responding officers that she had seen a man in a black ski mask standing in her living room. The man then demanded her purse, and she ran out of the house.
According to police report, officers found the first victim’s wallet on Nov. 6; and the next day, located surveillance footage from a nearby smoke shop. Police said, “The recording showed a male matching the suspect’s description and clothing.”
Police located a pawn shop transaction, which they said was made by the suspect before the incidents occurred. Footage from that transaction allegedly shows the suspect “wearing the same clothing as in the smoke shop video.”
The report said officers used the phone number the suspect listed to trace where the device had been during each of the three incidents.
From the report:
Timing Advance data is the measurement of how far the device is estimated to be located from a cell site sector at a specific time and can be used to map a device over time and locations. The mapped Timing Advance data for the target number ending in 4615 places the device near the following incident addresses during the following times:
- 11/4/2024 6:20 PM – 6:52 PM [incident reported to 911 dispatch at 6:49 PM] near the incident address of 210 W Kent Road, Duluth, MN;
- 11/5/2024 7:00 PM – 8:33 PM [incident reported to 911 dispatch 8:34 PM] near the incident address of 1501 Vermilion Road, Duluth, MN; and
- 11/6/2024 7:05 PM – 9:41 PM [incident reported to 911 dispatch at 9:03 PM] near the incident address of 2510 E 2nd Street, Duluth, MN.
Officers arrested Montana on Nov. 7 at the Duluth Transportation Center. A search of his apartment found an air pistol “matching the description given by victim 1.”
Montana, who also uses the last name Udahl, has been found incompetent in cases before. A judge initially ruled him incompetent during proceedings in 2013, but he was later convicted on the charges of first-degree burglary. He was convicted of second-degree burglary and attempted burglary in two separate cases in 2016.
