Fort Myers man gets 10 years for running 2 women over during road rage

LEE COUNTY, Fla.- A man charged with beating up a jogger, then running two women over with his car, will spend 10 years in prison.

Eric Montez pleaded no contest to aggravated battery Tuesday. The road rage incident in April 2014 killed one woman and left another with serious injuries.

WINK News spoke to that victim Tuesday.

Kristee Barres always keeps her mother in law, Lorraine McDaniel, close to her heart, with a necklace containing Lorraine’s ashes.

“I lost the best woman, I’ve known her since I was 13,” said Barres.

Life changed for Barres on April 17, 2014; the day she and her mom were run down.

“Lost my eyesight in this eye. I walk with a cane. My body is different. I am 34, I feel like I am 50. I mean I am in pain daily, not a day goes by,” said Barres.

Deputies say Montez hit Barres when she tried to stop him from beating up a jogger, who had accidentally tapped Montez’s car earlier.

“He jumped it in drive, as I’m running up to 7-11, so he can hit the building instead of me, I didn’t make it,” said Barres.

Montez then backed his car over Barres’ mother-in-law, who was trying to help her.

Lorraine McDaniel died after spending several months in the hospital.

“You only get one mom. I just wish I still had her.”

In Montez’s statement, he told deputies the car quote went over the women by accident and said his car lost control.

His statement then got stranger, telling police he was part of the pope’s military, and was born British.

Montez plead guilty to two counts of aggravated battery Tuesday, and got ten years in prison.

Barres says that is not enough. She says the sentence made her sick to her stomach.

She adds that no punishment can bring McDaniel back.

“I miss her, I wish there was a way to bring her back,” said Barres.

Following his release from prison, Montez will be on probation for up to five years. His driver’s license was permanently revoked.

Prosecutors did not upgrade the charge to murder after McDaniel’s death, but did not say why. A vehicular homicide charge has the same maximum penalty as Montez’s current charge.