Candy Montgomery

Candace Lynn Montgomery (née Wheeler; born November 15, 1949) is an American woman who was accused of murdering her former lover's wife, Betty Gore.

[2][3] Montgomery became close friends with Betty Gore, a middle school teacher,[1] after meeting her at a church service.

[1] Her daughter, Bethany, who had been sleeping in her crib in another room at the time of the incident, was awake, crying and covered in her own feces after being left for 13 hours unattended.

[2] The trial, over which District Judge Tom Ryan was appointed to preside,[5] was held in McKinney, Texas, and lasted eight days.

[5] Montgomery was subsequently found not guilty on October 30, 1980, by a jury consisting of nine women and three men, after deliberating for just over 3 hours.

[5][8]A book examining the case and events following the trial, titled Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs, was written by Dallas-based journalists John Bloom and Jim Atkinson.

[9] In the 1990 CBS TV movie A Killing in a Small Town, based on the Montgomery case but with names changed, Barbara Hershey won the Emmy award and the Golden Globe award portraying the lead character, named Cathy Morrison.