Sex abuse suspect recaptured after 11 years

Alejandro Montano, aka Carlos Ramo [Click to enlarge]

Sometimes the wheels of justice are slow, but they never stop turning.

Just ask Alejandro Montano, a current resident of the Buena Vista County Jail.

After more than 11 years on the run from charges including sexual abuse, false imprisonment and drugs in Storm Lake, a false identity, and an alleged lifetime web of lies, Mantano has been found in Chicago and returned to face the charges for a February 1998 incident.

Court records show that Montano is accused of holding a Spencer woman against her will locked in a bathroom of a Storm Lake home, forcing her to snort cocaine that he had kept folded in a dollar bill, and forcing her to peform a sexual act while holding the blade of a pair of scissors to her throat.

At one point, the woman was able to wrestle with Montano and break free, according to the allegation. She was not seriously injured, and was slated to testify against him at a trial later in 1998.

Montano had claimed that the woman was there and injested cocaine of her own free will. He said that while the two were in the bathroom, a pair of scissors fell from a cabinet and he picked them up, but did not threaten her. Although the woman picked him out of a lineup, he claimed that process was "impermissably suggestive."

According to Buena Vista County Sheriff Gary Launderville, local officials have never stopped looking for Montano. Recently, the cold case heated up with a tip call from an FBI agent that a man believed to be Montano was living and working in Chicago. Local officers had made notes of identifying characteristics including a "gang sign" tattoo and another reading "Alex" from when the man was in jail locally years ago, and were able to give Illinois officials enough information to identify and arrest Montano.

Quickly, the hunch was proven correct. "Fingerprints don't lie," Launderville said.

At the time of his 1998 arrest and since then, Montano had taken the identity Carlos Ramo, sometimes identifying himself as "Charlie." "The identity he was using belongs to a guy in Texas, and this poor man has been arrested three or four times over the last 10 years because of it," Launderville said.

Even after being returned to Storm Lake, Mantano continued to swear to officers that his name is Ramo, and even gave them a detailed story of being born at a specific hospital in Chicago. In his court documents in 1998, he had given what appears to be a fake birthdate, claimed to have been born in Texas, and had sworn to Ramo as his "true name." Court records also indicate an assault causing bodily injury conviction in Texas in 1997, and an earlier drug charge there. He claimed to have a wife and children living in Guadalajara, Mexico.

"Our nose was still itching, and we contacted immigration. They were almost to the point of giving up being able to prove or disprove whether he was a legal resident. I have to credit Major Doug Simons, who continued digging, and finally got one of Montano's own family members to tell us he is an illegal alien from Mexico," Launderville said.

"It's amazing - he's been getting away with this story for almost 40 years, and he was not very happy when we told him we knew the real story."

Investigation is continuing. Montano may have been involved in other criminal charges in Illinois during his 10 years there, but Launderville said his department is not yet certain of his full record.

In his Storm Lake case, Montano in 1998 had demanded a speedy trial, but then several delays were requested and granted initially despite resistance by the state. Montano had been considered an indigent and had a court-appointed defense attorney, who was later replaced. After a claim of excessive bond, the amount was reduced, he bonded out and he disappeared. After he failed to show up for hearings in his case, his attorney quit the case. A statewide manhunt was announced and a new arrest warrant was issued in September of 1998.

Currently in Storm Lake, he faces three felony charges for sexual abuse in the second degree, false imprisonment and controlled substance violation. He is also being held for U.S. immigrations investigations, without bail.