From NJ.com
| Accused killer’s attorney: Wife wasn’t strangled, she overdosed |
A Jersey City woman died of an overdose, not at the hands of her husband, the attorney representing the accused killer said in the opening statement of the murder trial this morning.
Defense attorney Stephen Walsh, to drive the point home, told the jury that 34-year-old Monica Montone, the mother of a small child, had cocaine, heroin and Xanax that day, Aug. 18, 2014.
The murder charge carries a possible sentence of 30 years to life in prison upon conviction.
“Kevin Montone did not kill his wife,” Walsh said. “No one killed his wife because she didn’t die from strangulation. She died of a drug overdose.”
Walsh also said a forensic pathologist hired by the defense found there was trauma to tissue in Monica Montone’s neck, but there was also signs of healing — “meaning it was not the cause of death.” He said the medical examiner got the cause of death wrong and “He made a huge mistake and it is affecting Kevin.”
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