By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune
Tosha Montgomery said she looked up and saw her ex-boyfriend in the red Dodge pickup. Derrick McNeal's eyes never left hers as he sped toward her, plowing through a July 4 party and pinning her against a wall.
"He had an expression on his face that would make you die right now," Montgomery told jurors this morning at McNeal's murder trial. "It's almost like he was possessed or something."
She said McNeal revved the engine three or four times, trying to run her over, but the truck was prevented from moving forward รข€“ perhaps by the frame of the house on East 24th Avenue. After McNeal backed up and sped off, Montgomery realized the carnage that had been left behind.
Demontaye Simmons, 2, was killed and two other children, ages 9 and 4, were injured.
McNeal, 40, is standing trial this week on numerous charges in the July 4, 2005, incident, including murder, aggravated assault and aggravated stalking. If he is convicted of murder, prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
Montgomery testified that McNeal stalked her for months, saying he threw a brick at her mother's car, threatened to set her mother's home on fire and threatened to throw battery acid on her and her son, then 12.
McNeal's attorneys say Demontaye's death was an accident. They say McNeal ducked when someone shot at him and that the Dodge had faulty brakes.
McNeal was stalked by Montgomery and her friends, who lured him to the scene of the tragedy, the defense contends.
The trial continues.
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