LIFE TERM FOR DRUG DEALER BRINGS RELIEF TO VOLUSIA AREA

A federal judge Friday ended the reputation of a violent drug dealer who
claimed police couldn't keep him behind bars.

Charles Howell Montgomery, who had terrorized the Volusia County community
of Spring Hill since the 1980s, was sentenced to life in prison by U.S.
District Judge Anne C. Conway in Orlando.

Montgomery , 40, is now one of 5,124 inmates serving life in federal
prison. The judge tacked on an extra 30 years for carrying a firearm.

"We're happy. We're very, very happy," said Volusia County sheriff's Lt.
Jim Ellinor, who drove to Orlando to attend the sentencing of the man he
had tracked for years.

Known as "Fat Charlie," the heavy-set dealer with a clean-shaven head ran
his business like an "all-night McDonald's" that relied on close relatives,
violence and threats to intimidate drug customers and rivals, according to
testimony at his trial last winter.

He was the drug kingpin in the tiny community of 1,169 people southwest of
DeLand. Spring Hill was the poorest place in Florida, according to the 2000
U.S. Census, and the annual household income was $13,000, $25,000 less than
the state median.

During the height of Montgomery's Teflon period he beat 44 charges in a row
when witnesses failed to testify against him. He bragged in 1990 that he
would hang Volusia Deputy Butch Bowman by the feet, skin him, cut off his
head and post it to warn police to stay out of Spring Hill, according to
court records.

Bowman, who patrolled the community, has retired and could not be reached
for comment.

Court records show Montgomery reported lifetime earnings of $563.07. But an
unidentified benefactor paid $5,271 in Florida sales taxes levied against
him in 1988 for illegal tax sales, according to newspaper accounts.

Montgomery was sentenced for selling 114 pounds of crack cocaine from
January 2001 until January this year. That period included several months
when Montgomery directed the business from a telephone in the Seminole
County Jail after his arrest in October 2003, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick
Jancha told the court Friday.

Security at the trial in February was three times heavier than usual.

Agent Keith Dalton, a Volusia deputy assigned to a DEA task force,
explained the tight security.

On Friday he testified that Montgomery had made plans in jail to stage an
escape in Orlando from a prisoner transportation van, kill the deputy U.S.
marshals driving the vehicle and then kill Jancha.

Large numbers of firearms, including an Uzi and a full-automatic AR-15
assault rifle, were seized in a series of raids last year of Montgomery's
homes. He found more weapons and was back selling drugs within days of
being arrested twice last year on state charges, according to testimony.

Montgomery declined to speak when Conway offered to allow him to speak to
the court, a point in the sentencing process when many convicts apologize
or try to explain their actions.

At least five people who sold drugs for Montgomery have been sentenced or
await sentencing for their crimes, agents said.

"Everyone was scared to death of him," Ellinor said. "It's much quieter
now. I think we have actually turned the corner in Spring Hill as a result
of these arrests."