Man charged in killing of 15-year-old Birmingham girl to remain held without bond, judge says

A Birmingham man charged in a shooting that killed a 15-year-old girl and injured her 5-year-old brother will remain held without bond, a Jefferson County judge has ruled.

Lee Otis Montgomery III, 27, is charged with capital murder in the slaying of Cornelia Lathan, first-degree assault in the wounding of her brother, Roman, and shooting into an occupied dwelling.

Montgomery appeared in court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.

When it ended, Jefferson County District Judge Katrina Ross deemed there was enough probable cause against Montgomery to forward the case to a grand jury for indictment consideration.

Montgomery’s attorney, John Robbins, had asked that bond be set for his client, contending he is not a flight risk and poses no danger to himself or the community at large.

Ross ordered Montgomery remain held with no bond, court records show.

The deadly shooting happened shortly after noon Wednesday, June 19, in the 500 block of 25th Street North at Park Place apartments.

Montgomery is the ex-boyfriend of Rebekah Lathan, the mother of Cornelia and Roman.

Officers were called to the apartment earlier that Wednesday on a domestic disturbance, which was verbal not physical, and Montgomery was gone by the time police arrived.

Hours later, sometime before 12:30 p.m., police said Montgomery returned to the apartment.

Cornelia Rose Lathan, 15, was shot to death in June 19 domestic incident at her family's Birmingham apartment. Her 5-year-old brother, Roman, was wounded.(Special to AL.com)

Lathan said she and Montgomery, with whom she was at the time expecting a daughter, had argued the night before and again in the hours before the shooting.

“He had come by one time that morning making threats,’’ she said. Montgomery left before police arrived.

When he came back, he opened fire from the parking lot, police said.

“I was at my desk working and he calls me, and we were arguing and the next thing you know I heard glass shatter,” she said.

Cornelia was pronounced dead on the scene at 12:25 p.m. Roman was taken to Children’s of Alabama and faces a long recovery from a gunshot wound to the leg.

Montgomery was quickly taken into custody after a short manhunt in Woodlawn. He was arrested in the 6000 block of First Avenue North.

Court records show Montgomery was arrested last year on a charge of third-degree domestic violence involving Lathan. Charging documents state he punched the victim in the side of the head and the shoulder with a closed fist.

That charge was later dismissed for “want of prosecution.”

Cornelia was a rising sophomore at a charter school in Bessemer. She wanted to be a nurse, and a pilot, and maybe serve in the military.

Cornelia, Lathan’s first-born, has just finished the ninth grade at Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High Schook, a charter school in Bessemer, where she was an Honor Roll student.

“She was a really sweet spirit,’’ Lathan said, “an all-around sweet girl.”

She can’t believe any of it really happened.

“I know he gets,” she said, “but I never would have thought it would escalate to this.”