Don Crowder, played by Raúl Esparza (above) in “Candy,” knew Candy Mongomery and Betty Gore from church and was hired by Montgomery to defend her. Per Texas Monthly, Crowder was a partner at a small firm and primarily focused on personal injury cases. The Montgomery case was his first criminal case as well as his first murder case. He decided to enlist the help of psychiatrist Fred Fason, who administered a series of tests to Montgomery and recreated the day of Gore’s murder with Montgomery via hypnosis.
Fason concluded that Montgomery’s murderous rage had been triggered by something Gore said that reminded Montgomery of a painful childhood incident in which she had been disciplined by her mother. This was used in court as part of Montgomery’s defense. It was Crowder who announced that Montgomery would plead self-defense and coached Montgomery on how to appear “sober and matronly” on the witness stand. He questioned her sternly and even brandished the ax at one point, yelling “You killed her with this ax right here, didn’t you?” perhaps to elicit emotion instead of the monotonous, clipped style in which Montgomery testified. As reported by UPI, Crowder used his final argument to tell the jury that the prosecution had “not one word of evidence that has refuted the testimony of self-defense.” Montgomery was found not guilty by reason of self-defense. Some spectators yelled “Murderer! Murderer!” as she left the courtroom with her husband, Pat.
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