McKINNEY, Texas -- Allan Gore testified Tuesday in the trial of the woman accused of hacking his wife to death with an axthat he had an affair with the defendant that lasted 10 months.
Gore, who met the defendant, Candace Montgomery, and her husband through his church, said the trim, 30-year-old housewife initiated the affair in October 1978 by telling him, "I was attractive to her."
Testifying in the first day of Mrs. Montgomery's trial, Gore said he resisted her advances for two months but then submitted.
During the 10 months of the affair, they met sometimes in a motel in Plano, Texas, or sometimes for lunch.
"Sometimes she would pack a picnic lunch and we would eat it together," Gore told the packed courtroom.
The meetings between the two always would be on Tuesdays or Thursdays when Mrs. Montgomery's child was in Bible class, Gore said. They usually met once every two or three weeks.
The secretive meetings lasted until the following October, but Gore said he decided, "I could not share myself with Candy."
Mrs. Montgomery is charged with the June 13 murder of Betty Gore, a Wylie, Texas, schoolteacher whose body was found in her home. Police said she had been hit 15 times with a three-foot ax kept in the Gores' garage.
Defense attorney Don Crowder shocked prospective jurors Monday by announcing Mrs. Montgomery had committed the slaying. He said, however, his client had acted in self-defense and her story would be told on the stand in the trial this week.
Under cross-examination by Crowder, attempting to show that Mrs. Montgomery was not a jilted lover, Gore said that the breakup was a mutual decision.
The two saw each other infrequently after they broke up until the Sunday before the killing when he and his wife saw the Montgomerys at Church, Gore said.
On June 13, the day Mrs. Gore was killed, Gore said Mrs. Montgomery was one of the first people he called in a frantic search for his wife while he was in Minnesota on a business trip. Gore said he called her because Mrs. Montgomery was babysitting his 7-year-old daughter and knew she would meet his wife during the day.
When he called her, Gore said, Mrs. Montgomery told him that she did not know where Mrs. Gore was and suggested that she might be visiting neighbors.
Gore called neighbors who found his wife's body on the floor of a utility room.
Later, after Gore learned that his wife was dead, Mrs. Montgomery was the first person he called. He said Mrs. Montgomery expressed "surprise and shock."
Gore saw Mrs. Montgomery the next day when he flew in from Minnesota and she brought his daughter to his house.
Eighteen witnesses have been subpoenaed for the trial, which is expected to last all week.
Testimony was scheduled to resume Wednesday morning.
