San Francisco DA Declines To File Charges Against Man Who Fatally Stabbed Dodgers Fan
SAN FRANCISCO (CBSLA.com) — The San Francisco District Attorney on Friday announced that they were not filing charges against a man for fatally stabbing a Dodgers fan last year.
Jonathan Denver was stabbed by Michael Montgomery in September 2013 during a bar brawl following a Dodgers-Giants game.
The DA -- George Gascon -- said after an extensive investigation, including an interview with Denver's brother who participated in the fight, members of Montgomery's group and independent witnesses, that he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Montgomery was not acting in lawful self defense.
Conceding Denver's family "suffered greatly and will never be the same," and "our hearts go out to the victim's family. The loss of a loved one in this manner is indeed tragic" Gascon said in a statement, "We worked very hard to see if there was sufficient evidence to charge the case."
The DA said it remains unclear "how the fatal encounter started, [but] what the evidence shows was a physical confrontation between the victim, the victim's brother and Mr. Montgomery. The totality of the evidence revealed that during the physical confrontation, Mr. Denver punched Mr. Montgomery. At, or near the same time, the victim's brother, swung a collapsible aluminum chair at Mr. Montgomery striking Mr. Montgomery in the head."
Gascon's statement added, "Both the victim and his brother substantially outweighed Mr. Montgomery by 50 and 100 pounds respectively. Under these circumstances, Mr. Montgomery inflicted a single stab wound that tragically proved fatal."
The DA concluded, "We are ethically obligated to decline to prosecute this case."
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