House painter Mike Montana received 31 years and eight months to life in prison Aug. 24 for shooting KFMB-TV CBS Sports Director Kyle Kraska and for making criminal threats to two others.
Montana, 55, of El Cajon, will not be eligible for parole until he turns 80 years old, said Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Zipp. He received credit for serving 645 days in jail.
House painter Mike Montana received 31 years and eight months to life in prison Aug. 24 for shooting KFMB-TV CBS Sports Director Kyle Kraska and for making criminal threats to two others.
Montana, 55, of El Cajon, will not be eligible for parole until he turns 80 years old, said Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Zipp. He received credit for serving 645 days in jail.
Montana received a life sentence for premeditated attempted murder of Kraska, whom he shot six times in his Mercedes on Feb. 10, 2015 in his driveway of his Scripps Ranch home.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth added 25 years for using a gun in the crime, and imposed another three years for great bodily injuries.
Smyth added three years consecutively for Montana’s conviction of making a criminal threat to Robert Hibler, the manager of the San Diego Rowing Club, who lives in East County. In 2012, Montana made numerous threatening phone calls to Hibler that were taped recorded and played to the jury.
Hibler testified at trial about receiving recorded death threats from Montana after he asked him to not use his jet ski in an area of Mission Beach. He said Montana “gunned” his jet ski after that and waves knocked down a woman in a boat.
Montana got another eight months for threatening a Department of Motor Vehicles employee in 2014. The life sentence includes earliest parole possibility at seven years, but Montana has to serve the 25 years first before he can be paroled.
“Every morning I see lots of scars staring back at me,” said Kraska in court. “I think about fighting for my life. I think about how many people prayed, people who mourned for my expected death.”
“I’m a grateful man. My trauma surgeon said it was a miracle I survived,” said Kraska, who has worked at KFMB-TV (Channel 8) for 17 years.
“I humbly ask for fairness,” said Kraska to Smyth. “Show him the same mercy he showed me when he showed up at my house and filled me full of bullets. Not once has he shown a shred of remorse.”
Turning towards Montana, Kraska said this: “Your bullets may have hit their target, but they did not kill my spirit. They did not destroy my passion and they did not extinguish my love for life.”
“It renewed my faith in God. You have been victimized by your own hatred. I hope that God shows you mercy that you never showed me,” concluded Kraska.
Smyth ordered Montana to pay $1,100 to pay for Kraska’s watch and cellphone that bullets destroyed as well as $3,257 to the crime victims’ compensation board. He fined him $10,434.
Montana painted about 25 percent of Kraska’s house before he quit after asking for more money besides the $800 Kraska paid in advance. He later demanded that Kraska send him the full $2,200 to a post office box in Lakeside. Kraska testified that before he shot him, Montana said he should have paid him the money.
His attorney, Richard Jayakumar, apologized for the attack for Montana, saying, “He’s glad he survived.” Montana nodded his head vigorously when he said that, but said nothing in court.
Jayakumar asked Smyth for a lower sentence, saying Montana was experiencing a “manic episode” and effect of various medications “had an effect on his mental abilities.”
Smyth said Montana fired 11 shots at Kraska and his car, shooting out two tires and windows with an unregistered gun that was never found. Montana “now remains a danger to society,” said Smyth.
An eight man, four-woman jury convicted Montana July 27 of all charges after 5 ½ hours of deliberations.
Dental assistant sentenced in molestation case
A former dental assistant from El Cajon was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for molesting 11 women and two 17-year-old girls while they were under anesthesia.
Luis Alfonso Ramos, 36, was ordered to register as a sex offender for life by San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth, who denied a defense request for probation.
Ramos worked at a North Park dental office that had a surveillance camera that captured most of the sexual abuse. Ramos pleaded guilty to 11 counts of sexual battery, digital penetration, and attempted digital penetration. He was given credit for serving 380 days in jail and fined $11,364.
Ramos got married recently while in jail following his Feb. 4 arrest. The attorney for the clinic’s insurance company was present for the sentencing.
“A lot of people were affected by this conduct,” said Deputy District Attorney Martin Doyle.
