Reno judge sets bail at $2.5 million in missing woman case

RENO -- A Kmart pharmacist accused of abandoning his stepson at a Utah store and suspected in his wife's disappearance was ordered held on $2.5 million cash bond Friday on a separate domestic assault charge.

Lyle Montgomery, 42, was ordered to stand trial in Washoe District Court on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment after he allegedly pointed a gun at his then-girlfriend, Jeannette Corpuz, 28, and threatened to kill her in October.

The couple married in December, but Corpuz disappeared in January about the time her 3-year-old son was abandoned at a Shop-KO in Salt Lake City.

Reno police believe Corpuz is dead and have identified Montgomery as a suspect. The prosecutors' file box in the courtroom was labeled "Lyle Marsh Montgomery, Murder, Kidnapping" but no such charges have been filed against him.

Reno Justice Court Judge Harold Albright said the extraordinary cash bail level was warranted on the assault and imprisonment charges based partly on sealed evidence presented at a closed hearing last month after Montgomery was ordered held in a psychiatric hospital.

"I have to say the evidence presented at the prior hearing was certainly proof ... that there's been another crime committed," Albright said.

Dan Greco, Washoe County's chief deputy district attorney, had asked that Montgomery continue to be held without bail but said he was "very happy the judge imposed such a high amount.

"We believe if he gets out, he's going to run," Greco said. He said the assault charge was unrelated to the investigation into Corpuz's suspected death and refused to comment on her disappearance.

Reno Police Detective David Jenkins said a variety of law enforcement agencies have spent hundreds of hours searching for Corpuz.

"I believe she's dead," Jenkins testified.

Montgomery's lawyer, Scott Freeman, said there's nothing to indicate Corpuz is dead, noting she also failed to show up for a December hearing on the October incident.

He said Montgomery is being held on an excessively high bail that's unfairly based on a crime he's not been charged with.

"That's no bail at all, your honor," Freeman told the judge after the $2.5 million bail was set.

"The state has had plenty of time to charge him on the 'unrelated charge.' They can't keep him in jail indefinitely," he said.

Freeman argued unsuccessfully for a $10,000 bond.

"There's no question in my mind that the $2.5 million bail was set because he is a suspect in another case," he told reporters outside the courtroom.

Freeman said Corpuz fabricated the story about the October assault. He said that Montgomery claims Corpuz broke into his home Oct. 26 to steal things and attacked him with a knife.

Police responded after a 911 hang-up call from the home that night.

Sgt. Mark Morton said when he returned the call Montgomery answered and he heard a woman scream, "He's got a gun."

Later, on the scene, officer Paul Pitsnogle said Corpuz told him that Montgomery "had a 9 millimeter semiautomatic hand gun and she added he had tried to shoot her with it."

Pitsnogle said she told him the two had argued earlier at the Kmart where they both worked and that he had left her there, forcing her to take a taxi home and to break into their home because she did not have her keys.

"She said she was in her son's bedroom grabbing belongings when he came in and pointed it at her head. ... He cycled a live round into the chamber and pointed the gun at her right temple," he said.

Corpuz pushed the gun away, but he pointed it again at her face, Pitsnogle said.

Her 3-year-old son "became hysterical" and she went to comfort him before dialing 911, he said.

Freeman noted that Corpuz told one police officer that the domestic dispute had been only verbal, not physical, and that she had not been harmed.

By the time she was interviewed by police in a squad car later, she had "time for reflection and to fabricate," Freeman said.

"I submit to the court that's what she did and that's why she didn't show up in December for this hearing," Freeman said.