ALEX POWELL: What does it take to build a case when the defendant has tried to destroy every piece of evidence?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: You're stepping into these people's lives at their worst moment. One of our residents, Joseph Shymanski, was murdered in the driveway of his home.

ALEX POWELL: So, Chris, you were performing with the symphony orchestra across the country. What made you decide to walk away from that career to go to law school?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah, I mean, it was kind of out of necessity. In high school I first really started getting serious about music. I was in the Peabody Preparatory playing trombone, and I went to undergrad at James Madison University. I did a kind of a double major in music performance and business. It was a music industry degree is what they called it. And through that experience I again got focused more on trombone and classical music, and if you want to really narrow down your employment opportunities, classical music and trombone is a good way to go. But I was, you know, bass trombone is the instrument I ended up selecting and what I was candidly better at.

So after that I went to New England Conservatory. And really up until that point in time, I was just planning to play music. I started getting gigs with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops, a lot of local orchestras. Then I got some work down in Baltimore and was in Mexico for a period of time, Mexico City. And then when I came back, I was making a living doing it, which is something I'd always wanted to do. It's really the only thing I'd ever envisioned myself doing.

And then the economy hit a bump. And really, classical music is one of the first things to go, simply because the funding is based on endowments, it's based on private funding. So it's hit hardest, candidly. I saw a lot of my colleagues, a lot of people who'd been doing the job for 30 years, all of a sudden not have a job. And I knew that it wasn't really a future that -- I didn't want to put myself in that position. It was an extremely hard decision because like I said, the only thing I had really thought about doing up until that point in time was being a classical musician and I was doing it.

So really it was with the support of my parents, my mother specifically. We talked a lot about it. I had taken a music law course when I was in undergrad, thought it was interesting, but again I was like, it's too much reading, too much writing. I'm not going to do this. I'm just going to play music. It's interesting, but not for me. But she said, you know, maybe that's something you want to explore. So I rolled -- I didn't want to just jump into law school because the amount of money, the debt, I knew from grad school that, you know, I wanted to make sure it was a career path I really wanted to invest in. So I started taking paralegal certification courses at the local community college where they were actually taught by Lisa Sparks, who I know you're familiar with. She was one of our teachers at UB.

ALEX POWELL: Future guest of the show.

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Oh yeah, perfect. Yeah. So Lisa's great. I took her courses and she gave me some additional work to do. Said, "Hey, if you really want to figure out what you want to do, here's some practical experience." And I really enjoyed it. So I made the tough decision, but really also partly out of necessity, to switch career paths, and then I started enrolling at University of Baltimore at night and then I clerked for a law firm during the day.

So it was a tough transition. When I first got to class they said write a paper and I said, oh well it's like two pages, right? And like, no, like 15 pages, cite your authorities. Had no idea what that meant. So it was a very difficult transition. But once I got the hang of it, once I kind of figured out the pattern about how you do law school, it came to me pretty easily. And then it was really something that I love doing. So I was very fortunate to fall into another career that I enjoyed probably equally as playing music. So I was really fortunate in that respect.

ALEX POWELL: I didn't know that Professor Sparks, who's the president of the alumni association board as well, had such a major role in your becoming a lawyer.

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah. And she may not realize that, but I remember she started teaching at UB about the time when I started there. So we just happened to go there at the same time, transition from the community college to law school together, and I was in one of her classes. She remembered me, so that was nice. But yeah, she really did -- she was an outstanding instructor and she gave me some opportunities and she really gave me enough knowledge that I knew, hey, this is something I want to invest in. So yeah, she was absolutely a motivating factor.

ALEX POWELL: Professional music performance, there's a pressure associated with that too. You don't want to hit the wrong note, you don't want to say the wrong thing in trial, cause a mistrial. Of course, within an orchestra, you're one part of many. And giving a closing argument, the spotlight's on you, right? At the same time, you're part of a team in the office. So what parallels did you see within those two roles?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah. I mean, it's definitely different because like you said, when you're presenting a trial, it's you. And when I was a musician, there's not a whole lot of call for solo bass trombone. So that's not something -- me by myself, people don't want to hear that, frankly. So one of the things I enjoyed about music so much was the collaborative aspect of it.

But I think really, when you're a classical musician and you're applying for jobs, really your application process is you play the same orchestral excerpts. The music really hasn't changed for a long time. So you play the same excerpts over and over again. Everybody plays the same thing. And it's really attention to detail. It's about consistency, attention to detail, and making sure that you can repeat that passage over and over and over again. That's really the process for auditioning for an orchestra.

And I think that attention to detail has served me very well in my current role. So it's a matter of finding the fine details in a case, whether it's going through some random data in a cell phone download, making sure even at a fundamental stage that you have all the elements, making sure you're prepared, because the level of preparation that it takes to audition to be a classical musician is substantial. So I think it's very similar. I use that same work ethic when I'm prosecuting a case -- making sure you invest, you're fully prepared, you're ready to go, and you can repeat the process over and over again.

So really, I think that is a strong parallel that's really served me well in my current role. I would say not something I'd ever thought of. You don't think classical musician and attorney. I will say a lot of judges I interned with happened to also be musicians of some sort. So I think there's a parallel there. I'm not sure why. But for me that was the aspect of classical music that really transitioned well to being a prosecutor or a lawyer in general.

ALEX POWELL: The camaraderie that you form with your fellow musicians, I know that you form within the state's attorney's office as well because you're spending so much time around these people in a high-pressure environment.

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, we spent a significant amount of time with each other right off the bat. You're in the office, especially as a young prosecutor, long hours on weekends. And whenever you have a question, it's great because you have someone to bounce that off of. That's where that camaraderie, that group work kind of reveals itself.

I mean, we were fortunate enough to work with John Naylor, who's running major crimes in Prince George's County. And, well, I can tell you we did spend more time with John than his own wife did. So you spend a lot of time and you really get to bounce ideas off each other. And I think that is definitely the camaraderie you build. I think it's essential really when you're a young prosecutor, honing your craft a little bit when you're cutting your teeth in a lot of the district court cases and the initial circuit court cases.

ALEX POWELL: I shared an office with John off the bat and you were right next door. That was such a great way to have quick information sharing, talking about what just happened in court and then applying the lessons that we learned, minute to minute and getting better day by day. Chris, you've been recognized as one of the best prosecutors in Maryland. What do you believe separates a good prosecutor from a great prosecutor?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: I'm not sure about that accolade, but I appreciate it. I think a great prosecutor is someone that's invested in their cases. Starting at the district court level, you care about each case. Obviously your caseload will depend on how much effort and how much time really that you can put into it. But caring about your cases, knowledge of your case front and back, the discovery, the legal arguments, being able to think on your feet.

I think one tool that was very helpful for me was my clerkship, because when I was clerking in Baltimore City, I was able to -- I had the fortune of being able to see outstanding prosecutors litigate homicide cases. We were on the felony docket. So I got to see attorneys such as Kurt Bjorkland in Baltimore City, who's a phenomenal prosecutor. And Anne Colt Leitess did a lot of cases. And you're able to see that they know the law back and forth. They know their case back and forth and they are prepared and they're also able to communicate the facts, communicate the law to the jury in an effective manner.

And I took a lot of the tools that I saw them use, and I employ those right now to try to figure out how can I make the jury understand accomplice liability. How can I make the jury understand this circumstantial evidence gathered together proves my case? I think being able to communicate that information is really important and it's something that takes experience, and really sitting there watching all those homicide prosecutors and watching Jonathan Church and Thea Zumwalt in Prince George's County, spending the time watching those practitioners, really was exceptionally important in my career.

ALEX POWELL: Thinking about serious felony trials and how you prepare for that, what is the week before a big trial look like for you?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: One thing that our supervisor Jennifer Rush, when we were in Prince George's County, said is when you're preparing for a trial, when you're looking at your case, one helpful thing to do is to start with the closing and work backwards. That way you know your elements and you want to make sure that you're able to establish all of your elements. So a lot of times I'll have my closing, or certainly a draft of my closing, done probably two weeks before trial if I'm able to. That's the goal.

And then so the week before trial, really at that point in time, is making sure everything's set up. A lot of logistics, because a couple of my more recent trials have been 25 to 30 witnesses. So really it's logistics, making sure everybody knows when to come, where to go, things of that nature. So really the bulk of your trial prep happens three, four weeks out from trial, and it's just a matter of going through the closing, if you have a particular issue like I was talking about -- accomplice liability -- find someone that works in the courthouse, go through that argument with them in the manner in which you're presenting it, which for nowadays is usually PowerPoint presentations, and make sure that they get it. Because if they don't get it as someone who works in the courthouse, likelihood is that your jurors will probably not be able to understand what you're talking about.

So trying to find creative ways to express legal concepts, the facts of the case, and taking that time to really bounce ideas off of not only attorneys but really anyone, any resource that you have, I think is very important, and I've definitely used that in a lot of my trials.

ALEX POWELL: That formative experience in such a busy jurisdiction -- how did that prepare you for your role now where you're trying homicide cases that garner national media attention?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah, I think our time in Prince George's County was invaluable for me. I think the benefits of a larger jurisdiction is first you get to try a lot of cases. I mean, in the two years I was there, I think I had over 20 jury trials, which if you go to a smaller jurisdiction, you're just not going to have that experience. So that gives you a comfortability in the courtroom, being familiar with how the whole jury trial operates.

And also, Prince George's County, again because of the volume, you have a lot of fairly serious cases that are down in district court. And so you're dealing with stabbings, you're dealing with cases involving numerous search warrants and phone pings and things of that nature. So you know how those work, how those evidentiary rules apply. So you're in a position that when you are in circuit court litigating a homicide case, these are not new concepts. These are things I've done over and over again, albeit maybe the stakes are not as high, but you are comfortable with that.

And I think having that experience has been great. I've seen other prosecutors that didn't have that experience, that didn't have the opportunity to litigate that many jury trials, and it's an adjustment period, I'll say. So I think Prince George's County was great. Working with all those seasoned attorneys, phenomenal attorneys, just watching them on a daily basis was invaluable. And being able to go through similar concepts, similar evidentiary issues in the district court helped prepare me for when those same issues pop up in circuit court.

ALEX POWELL: I remember you working on animal cruelty cases back then. Did you create the Calvert County Animal Cruelty Task Force?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah, so that was an initiative by Judge Rappaport when I got there. They had reviewed animal cruelty cases and didn't see that there were a whole lot of -- we'll say criminal cases filed candidly by law enforcement and then pursued. So that's something that, again, Jennifer Rush just kind of said -- we all had some specialties in district court. So I handled the fatalities, motor vehicle fatalities, and she said you're also doing animal cruelty. I was like, okay, sounds good.

I've had a number of cases where the individual was also charged with serious domestic violence crimes in relation to the animal cruelty. Because if they're willing to do that to their dog, their cat, they may also be willing to do that to their spouse or to their child. So it's an interesting area of law. And something that I know Judge Rappaport thought was important when I got there.

And so we immediately recognized it's got to be a collaborative effort, and it's not just having someone in the office that has experience prosecuting those cases. It's, well, we got to talk to animal control, talk to law enforcement, make sure they buy in. Make sure that they know what to look at because they may say, I responded, I didn't really see anything that stood out to me. And maybe that's why some of those cases fell through the cracks before, but now, making sure that they're informed as far as what to look for in those types of cases has been helpful.

So I think it was a great experience. We have a great working relationship with our sheriff's office, with animal control, with our detectives and the criminal investigation bureau. And I think, you know, in Prince George's County, it's really just getting through the volume of cases. In Calvert County, we have the opportunity to be really involved in investigations early on in the process, which is great. We're able to collaborate with the detectives as far as, hey, this is an issue we might want to strengthen in your case. You might want to talk to this person. You might want to pursue this electronic evidence, things of that nature. So it's very collaborative, which is different than Prince George's County, but I think I appreciate it. It really gets you into your cases right off the bat, which is, I think, helpful for a prosecutor.

ALEX POWELL: That's interesting. Could you expand on how it's different?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah. So I think in Prince George's County really you would get the case files, a stack of case files, and then you had a week to really just make sure all your witnesses would show up and that discovery was done and prep the best you could for trial.

ALEX POWELL: Well, it's a million people in the jurisdiction versus about 90,000 or so.

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's a completely different animal, right? We don't have as much crime, so that's good. But when a, say, a robbery happens, we get a call from the detectives. Hey, this is what I have at this point. Is there anything you think of right off the bat that you want me to do? I'll keep you informed as things progress. And then if a statement's done, we're getting that statement right away so we can review it. So it's really we're working hand in glove with the detectives, which is great.

So that way, because really, we're working together to put the best work product we can to make sure that we have everything we can to establish the case, to make sure we know what's going on, whatever the truth may be. So I think it's different in that respect. There's a real collaborative effort, and I'm sure it was that way for homicide in Prince George's County. I'm sure there was more collaboration there than simply a district court prosecutor working with the road patrol. But it's really been interesting. It was something that I thoroughly enjoy.

So in building that working relationship and being able to trust your detectives, knowing that they have the information that they need to follow up on their cases, is great. One of the reasons I love what I do is that it is really community prosecuting. You feel that you can make a difference. I was at the gas station the other day and I saw someone that was a victim of a domestic case I had and she's doing great, right? She turned her life around. At the time, she was probably making bad decisions, but now she's doing great. She's going to school. And it's being able to see those people in the community. With a larger jurisdiction, you probably do. But I think it certainly happens to a greater extent in a smaller jurisdiction. Everybody knows each other. So that's really why I love doing what I'm doing in Calvert County.

ALEX POWELL: Being in a smaller jurisdiction, you worked on a case nonetheless that got national media attention. You had a homicide case with no body recovered, no weapon recovered, no eyewitnesses, and the defendant was sentenced to life without parole. What does it take to build a case when the defendant has tried to destroy every piece of evidence?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: One of our residents, Joseph Shymanski, was murdered in the driveway of his home in Calvert County. And really the only evidence we had as to what occurred -- because initially it was a missing person's case. His ex-wife had come in to do a custody exchange and he wasn't there. Now, the next morning they came out and then they saw blood in the driveway. And we have the fortune of having Kelsey Ward as our crime scene technician. She worked in Prince George's County before. So she had a wealth of experience and she did a lot of blood spatter work for Prince George's County and she recognized it as being gunshot blood spatter.

So they interviewed a neighbor who lived close by who heard gunshots, and then really we had the vehicle of the defendant, Brandon Holbrook, captured coming into the county on an LPR camera and then also on Ring cameras within the neighborhood. So that's really as far as the evidence within Calvert County as to what happened -- that was pretty much the sum and substance.

And really in that case, we were relying on forensic testimony. So they found Mr. Shymanski's body had been butchered and burned and scattered across a clearing near Mr. Holbrook's house. There was a forensic anthropology team from Mercyhurst University. They came down and they recovered some of the fragmented remains, which included a skull fragment, and they were able to, from the evidence of trauma within the skull fragment, determine that it was consistent with a gunshot wound. And that was important testimony because there wasn't enough of Mr. Shymanski's remains for a medical examiner to give any sort of opinion.

So we were on the back foot as far as how do we prove the death blow, what the death blow was, but also that the death blow occurred in Calvert County. They could argue, well, maybe he drove Mr. Shymanski up to -- it was in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, where he lived -- and shot him there. So really it was relying on the forensics and the experience of crime scene technician Ward, as well as with the blood on the driveway and what the neighbors reported, and then the forensic testimony of Dr. Dirkmaat and the team at Mercyhurst University as far as the mechanism of injury. And it was a lot of scientific testimony, a lot of Daubert hearings. So it was very interesting in that respect. But yeah, it was a very interesting case to prosecute.

ALEX POWELL: Against a defense team that's some of the best defense attorneys in the state of Maryland. After a verdict like that, after an eight-day trial, what does that moment after feel like?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah, I mean, it's a sense of relief. You're glad that you were able to really piece together what was ultimately a circumstantial case and present it in a manner that was compelling to the jury. It was a lot of work. Myself, Ben Lerner was another one of the prosecutors in our office. We handled the case. There was a lot of late nights. A lot of work went into that case from us, from our law enforcement partners in Pennsylvania, our detectives in Calvert County, and then as well as our science experts. I mean, it was a great deal of time, a great deal of energy. So a sense of relief that we effectively presented the work of all these people to the jury in a manner that they understood, that the individual sitting before them was responsible for Mr. Shymanski's death.

ALEX POWELL: There was a 48 Hours special, network television journalism. There was media attention from the outset of the case through and after the verdict. How do you manage that pressure as a prosecutor while staying focused on the task at hand?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: So, I mean, I did have a little bit of experience. We both worked in law school on the case involving the in-custody death of Freddie Gray. Obviously that had a lot of media attention. And you can just kind of learn to block that out to the best you can. You can't worry about what article's going up, what people are saying. Because you've just got to trust yourself and trust your case and know that you're confident in what you're doing.

Because really the pressure in these cases -- there was media attention, but really it's you're worried about the victim. You're worried about making sure that your best efforts are made to fight for getting justice for your victim. That's really, for me, the pressure in a homicide case. It doesn't come from what a reporter might ask you or people calling in. I think really all the pressure comes from trying to make sure that you can get justice for your victim, present the evidence in the best way possible, making sure that you have worked with your detectives to get that evidence. That's really where the pressure comes from for me.

ALEX POWELL: Thinking about that collaborative team effort -- it spanned jurisdictions in that case as well. What was the biggest logistical challenge in that case?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: We had a lot of out-of-state witness subpoenas to get everybody there. And it was a case that really we wanted to present witnesses in a certain manner. We wanted to be very methodical with the manner in which we were presenting the evidence to the jury because it was hard enough. It was going to be a circumstantial case. We wanted to make sure it was as clean and clear and concise as possible.

So it's a matter of trying to have everybody positioned, staged as it were, to make sure that everybody's there. And I think that was an issue. Also, trying to do interviews -- thank God we have Zoom and things of that nature, that made it way easier. But yeah, it was a logistical nightmare as far as trying to make sure everybody's aware, they're where they're supposed to be. Obviously we had to find housing for a number of witnesses. Chrissy King, my assistant, did a phenomenal job negotiating that. So yeah, that was definitely an added hurdle when it came to actually presenting the case at trial.

ALEX POWELL: And given all the experience that you've gained in a decade as a prosecutor, is there anything that you know now that you wish -- you know what, I wish I would have known that back when I first started as a prosecutor in Prince George's County?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: I think one of the things that you have to prepare yourself for is handling family dynamics when you get to homicide prosecuting, and really any case, whether it's domestic violence, child abuse cases, serious cases. There's going to be a lot of family dynamics that candidly you don't know anything of. I mean, you're stepping into these people's lives at their worst moment. And you've got to come up to speed with what is the relationship between the victim and the defendant, trying to dig into that. That's not something I really thought of and had any knowledge of when I was prosecuting district court cases, right? It's definitely a different dynamic when you get to the level of really serious violent felonies.

That's something that I didn't expect to start dealing with, but yeah, I mean, it comes with the territory. I think most homicide prosecutors run into that as well. So having patience, trying to convey to the family, hey, I'm new to you, you don't know me. I'm going to try to come up to speed and get an understanding of the family dynamic here. And having patience and trying to understand that they will obviously react certain ways to that information, and being able to deal with that, I think, is part of the gig, really.

ALEX POWELL: Setting expectations upfront when discussing cases with the victim's family at the outset so they know the timeline, how long this could possibly take. With the everyday life of being in a courtroom, it becomes part of the job. And you know how many court appearances and continuances and postponements and motions can happen before a trial, before any sense of resolution or closure can occur. Chris, you were honored in 2022 with the Victoria F. Gelfman Award. Can you describe what it was like to receive that honor?

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah, I mean, that was an honor. My sister is a detective in Howard County and she had worked with Judge Gelfman, and she was familiar with Victoria. And to receive an award named after anyone is obviously extremely humbling. The fact that it was an attorney who did the work that she did in domestic violence, and to be recognized by the family -- because part of the process is you speak with the family and you have conversations -- it was a tremendous honor. I mean, it was great. I was surprised. But yeah, it was a tremendous honor and it was great.

ALEX POWELL: Chris, it's been great catching up with you and I'll talk to you soon.

CHRISTOPHER MONTE: Yeah, absolutely. Good to see you again, Alex. Thank you for having me.