Ex-Police Officer Pleads Guilty In Mountain Brook Murder

MOUNTAIN BROOK, AL — The man accused in the 2019 murder of Megan Montgomery in Mountain Brook has pleaded guilty. Jason Bragg McIntosh, Montgomery's husband, pleaded guilty to murder Wednesday and faces up to 30 years in prison.

Montgomery was shot three times in the parking lot behind the Mountain Brook Athletic Complex early in the morning of Dec. 1, 2019.

Chief Ted Cook of the Mountain Brook Police Department said police obtained video from the night of Nov. 30, 2019, of McIntosh at Courtyard 280 restaurant in Inverness and interacting with Montgomery and a group of people she was with at the restaurant. Cook said video showed she appeared to have left the restaurant with McIntosh voluntarily, although her credit card was left at the restaurant and her car was left in the Courtyard 280 parking lot.

Cook said Montgomery's body was found in the parking lot adjacent to the varsity baseball field, an area that was not well-lit at night. He said evidence at the scene indicated that Montgomery was shot at the site where she was found. He added that she was shot multiple times — once in the back and multiple times in the head.

McIntosh, a former Hoover police officer who was arrested earlier in 2019 in a domestic abuse case, was investigated before that after an incident during which he shot Montgomery in the arm during an altercation. He resigned from the Hoover Police Department after his arrest in May of 2019.

Montgomery filed for divorce from McIntosh on May 16, 2019, but according to court records, the case was still active at the time of her death.

McIntosh, 46, turned himself in to Mountain Brook police and was originally charged with capital murder. His plea reduced his charge to murder. Under the agreement, he faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole before 24 years served.

Montgomery's family held a news conference at the Birmingham Bar Center after the plea agreement was announced. Susann Montgomery-Clark, Megan's mother, said the abuse her daughter endured in her relationship with McIntosh had a profound effect on Megan even before her death.

"Megan began dying on July 23, 2017, on their first date," Montgomery-Clark said. "Like a frog in a pot of boiling water, you gradually turn up the heat to boiling and the frog doesn’t know they’re dying. That’s what happened to Megan. That’s what domestic violence does. Anyone who met her after their first date didn’t know the real Megan that he destroyed long before he killed her.”

"Jason took my beautiful daughter’s life," Megan's father, Johnny Montgomery said. "A father should never have to bury his child. Jesus commands me to forgive and I am working on forgiving Jason. I can forgive the person but not the crime. I will eventually forgive Jason because I will not allow anger or bitterness or resentment to control my life."

McIntosh's attorney, Tommy Spina, said the death of Megan Montgomery shows just how prevalent domestic violence is, in every community.

"Domestic violence is real and it takes place in all segments of society daily," Spina said in a statement Wednesday. "If you are aware of a friend, acquaintance, relative or co-worker or even a complete stranger who is in an abusive relationship, whether physical or emotional, you need to get proactive and try and do what you can to break the cycle of abuse before it ends like it did in this instance. Do not just sit back and watch, judge and later wish you had acted. It does not have to end this way, there are ways out. Be aware."

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