Custody fights among estranged couples are all too common. But few are as extreme as the one involving Monty Turner, who's accused of kidnapping his three-year-old son, Luke, and fleeing with him to Canada.
Luke was eventually found and reunited with his mother, Brandy. Now, authorities are throwing a whole legal library's worth of books at Monty. A total of sixteen charges filed against him, twelve of them felonies, including kidnapping and assault. Photos, videos and details below.
The latest incident isn't the first in which Monty attracted unwanted attention in relation to young Luke.
Last July, as pointed out by the Longmont Times-Call, he and the boy didn't return as planned from a camping trip, prompting Brandy to call in the authorities. They ultimately tracked the pair to Washington County, where officers found them "hiding under carpeting in a box truck," the paper reports.
Monty wasn't accused of a crime for his actions, because he and Brandy didn't have a custody agreement. Afterward, though, she was granted guardianship over the boy, and a judge approved a protection order that required him to stay away from mother and son.
The order apparently worked for a while -- but not permanently.
On May 25, Brandy reportedly stepped into her backyard to smoke a cigarette and found Monty there. She reacted by racing back into the house, locking the door and trying to call 911. But he allegedly forced his way inside, threw the phone away, attacked her with pepper spray and (she thinks) a stun gun and then spirited Luke away -- on a bicycle.
Monty and Luke subsequently disappeared. Here's a photo of Monty shared by police at the outset of the search; note his religious/apocalyptic T-shirt:
Early on, police believed father and son got away with assistance from Monty's father, 72-year-old Ronald Turner. Ronald was subsequently arrested in Missouri, where he's awaiting extradition.
Meanwhile, an intensive search was launched for Monty and Luke. They were found days later a long ways from home: a motel in Manitoba, Canada.
Luke was unharmed and was able to join a clearly overjoyed Brandy at a news conference. Here's a CBS4 report about that:
Meanwhile, Monty was jailed on a $500,000 bond, while Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett determined the appropriate charges. And he came up with a slew of them.
Continue for more about the charging of Monty Turner, including photos and another video.
The laundry list of allegations includes one count of second-degree kidnapping, three first-degree and second-degree burglary charges (because he's said to have broken into Brandy's house when she tried to lock him out), one count related to violating the protection order, three custody-violation beefs and domestic violence for the alleged stun-gun use.
And those are just the felonies. Misdemeanor charges include third-degree assault, plus another count connected to the protection order and obstruction of a telephone, due to the way he allegedly tried to prevent her from calling the cops.
Monty has made his first brief appearance at Boulder County Court yesterday, and he's got many more to come, including a preliminary hearing slated for July 3.
Look below to see a larger version of Monty's mug shot, followed by the complete news conference featuring Brandy and Luke, courtesy of CBS4.
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