A man convicted in the 1986 deaths of two South Toledo women, receiving the death penalty in one case, has been granted a new trial by a federal judge because his defense team was not given a police report that "was material to the outcome" of the trial.

William T. Montgomery, 41, was given the death penalty after being convicted in October, 1986, of aggravated murder while committing aggravated robbery in the shooting death of Debra Ogle, 20. He also was found guilty of murder in the death of Ms. Ogle's roommate, Cynthia Tincher, 19, and sentenced to life in prison.

In a 124-page opinion released Saturday, Judge Solomon Oliver, Jr., in U.S. District Court in Cleveland ordered the state to either set aside Montgomery's conviction for aggravated murder and the death sentence or give him a new trial. Montgomery is on death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.

The state attorney general's office, which is handling the case, will likely appeal to the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

The lead attorney on the case could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Jane Ogle, mother of Debra Ogle, said last night she was stunned by the court decision. The Toledo woman has followed the case and its ensuing appeals through a variety of courts over the years.

"He was seen leaving Cindy's car; he had Debbie's blood on his clothes. He's guilty," Ms. Ogle said. "My daughter's in a grave. Where are my rights? This person in jail has all the rights in the world."

She voiced concern about attorneys trying to re-create a 21-year-old case in court.

Toledo Attorney Richard Kerger, who is handling this case for Montgomery, said the reversal was based on one of many points listed in a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed in June, 2000. Forty-eight general areas of constitutional violations were alleged in the petition.

Singled out was a police report by a witness who reported seeing Ms. Ogle several days after the murders. The report was apparently not released until after the trial, and then only under a judge's Freedom of Information Act order.

The court "felt the trial wasn't fair because all the information wasn't provided," Mr. Kerger said. "It's a good decision. I think his conviction was obtained in a way that wasn't fair."

On March 8, 1986, Toledo police found the body of Ms. Tincher in her car near Angola and Wenz roads. She had been shot in the head at close range.

Four days later, Montgomery directed police to Ms. Ogle's body, which was found in a brushy area in the 4700 block of Hill Avenue. Montgomery and Glover Heard, Jr., were arrested and charged in the women's deaths.

Heard, 45, who testified against Montgomery in an agreement with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to murder as an accomplice in the death of Ms. Tincher. He is serving 15 years to life in the North Central Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio.

Heard had testified that Ms. Ogle was killed first and he saw her dead on March 8, 1986. But Judge Oliver said that testimony could have been contradicted by a police report that said she had been seen alive at that time.

"The court finds that sufficient weaknesses exist in Heard's testimony, and therefore in the state's case, that could have been undermined by the withheld police report," the opinion said.

"For example, the state posited that Montgomery first killed Ogle for her car, and then killed Tincher afterward to eliminate the witnesses who had last seen Ogle alive. Yet the withheld police report indicates that David Ingram reported that he and several witnesses saw Ogle alive and that she waved to them in the early morning hours of March 12, 1986."

Lucas County Common Pleas Judge James Bates, who as an assistant county prosecutor tried the case against Montgomery, had not seen the opinion and declined to comment. He said he recalled the case vividly and described Montgomery as "a very dangerous man."

He said he hopes the decision is appealed or the case retried so that Montgomery is not allowed to go free.

"The thing about habeas cases is that 21 years later, the underlying facts of the case are forgotten," Judge Bates said. "The longer the case goes, the less significant the facts become."

Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates pointed out the many appeals filed in state courts on behalf of Montgomery since his 1986 conviction. Each time, the courts found them to be without merit.

"It's very, very troubling that this would happen in light of the many evaluations and scrutiny that this case has been given over the 21 years," Mrs. Bates said. She declined further comment until she could more thoroughly review it.

Retired Toledo police Detective Art Marx, who investigated the case, was unaware of the decision and declined to comment.

Mr. Kerger admitted it was unclear if Judge Oliver set aside only Montgomery's aggravated murder conviction and death sentence, or if both convictions he received for Ms. Ogle's and Ms. Tincher's deaths were affected. "That's something we'll ask the judge to clarify," he said.

Defense attorney Ronnie Wingate, who was Montgomery's trial lawyer said he agreed with the judge's decision that any police report filed on the case should have been given to him.

"Irrespective if they would have resulted in a different outcome, the court believed that in order for Mr. Montgomery to get a fair trial, the information should have been disclosed," Mr. Wingate said. "I think it's warranted and the relief Mr. Montgomery receives, he deserves."

Contact Erica Blake at:

eblake@theblade.com

or 419-213-2134.

First Published April 3, 2007, 11:14 a.m.