Young woman gets life for role in murder when she was 17

ST. LOUIS -- A 23-year-old woman faces a life prison sentence for her role in the torture death of a woman who was killed so she wouldn't testify against her boyfriend in a murder case.

Crystal Barge was convicted Friday of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the May 2000 death of Danielle Montgomery, 19. Barge and two co-defendants -- Charaty "Baby Doll" White and Sherlene "Tiny" Franklin -- beat, stabbed, choked and even tried to drown Montgomery with Pine-Sol and urine.

Officials said that Montgomery's boyfriend, Charles Liston, was in jail awaiting trial in a drug-related homicide when he persuaded White and Franklin to kill Montgomery. They enlisted Barge to help, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Liston called Franklin's St. Louis home multiple times the night of the murder, even listening in as the women beat and stabbed Montgomery there.

The only possible sentence for first-degree murder is life without parole. The St. Louis Circuit Court jury recommended a four-year sentence for Barge for the armed criminal action conviction.

Liston and White are also serving sentences of life without parole. Franklin struck a deal, agreeing to testify in exchange for a sentence of life in prison plus 15 years. She is scheduled to be sentenced next week.

Defense attorney David Bruns tried to persuade jurors to sentence his client to a lesser offense than first-degree murder, stressing that his client was only 17 at the time of the killing. He also said she was less to blame than the other defendants.

But prosecutor Rachel Smith said jurors were obligated to "protect those who come forward" and "speak out for the Danielle Montgomerys of this world." She said Montgomery "was tortured, abused and assaulted in ways that most of us never want to consider."