Duluth Man, 60, Gets Nearly 11 Years for Violent Home Invasions

Jeffery Scott Montana shoved open the front door of a Chester Park home on the night of Nov. 4, 2024, pushed an 80-year-old man to the floor, waved a gun in his face and ransacked the residence. Over the next two nights, he broke into two more Duluth homes. Judge Matthew Mallie sentenced the 60-year-old to 129 months in state prison last week, the maximum allowable under the terms of his plea agreement.

The St. Louis County Attorney's Office announced the sentence following Montana's December guilty plea to three counts of first-degree burglary and two counts of kidnapping. All victims were over 70, according to investigators, and every one of them sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

The crimes unfolded across three consecutive evenings. On Nov. 4, officers responded to the 200 block of West Kent Road, where the first victim was transported by Mayo Ambulance to a hospital. The following night, between 6 and 8 p.m., police were called to the 1500 block of Vermilion Road, where Montana took a couple into their basement and beat them over the head with a club-like object; both were hospitalized. On Nov. 6, around 9 p.m., he entered a home on the 2500 block of East 2nd Street, prompting the occupant to flee and fall, sustaining injuries in the escape.

Investigators with the Duluth Police Department's Patrol and Investigative Division linked the three cases and arrested Montana at about 3:15 p.m. on Nov. 7, 2024, at the Duluth Transportation Center. "Due to the hard work and dedication from DPD, Montana is being held responsible for the harm he perpetrated on our community," the department said in a statement.

A victim letter read aloud in court captured what the crimes cost beyond physical injury. "It still haunts me," the letter said, "and it helped us to decide to move out of that house. Being the victim of this crime has made me feel insecure and distrustful of an environment which I had previously enjoyed for 10 years."

Montana told the court he could not recall the events because of his intoxication at the time. "I just want to let the victims all know that I do feel bad," he said. "I wish I could look them in the eyes and let them see how bad I feel. I know they're hurt."

His criminal record stretches back decades and includes a 1997 burglary in Duluth's Denfeld neighborhood while he was on a prison work release program, a 2002 incident in which an 11-year-old caught him going through her mother's purse inside their Congdon Park home, and a 2013 robbery at a Superior apartment building in which he punched an 84-year-old woman in the face. Montana told the court he had been out of prison for a little over three years before the November break-ins, describing it as his longest period of freedom since he was first sent to an institution at age 8.