Of Love and Pardons: How They Met

Courtesy Mississippi Attorney General

Joseph Ozment, a pardoned governor's mansion trusty, and LaChina Tillman, an engineer for a Fortune 500 company, are planning a life together. That's assuming that the Mississippi Supreme Court doesn't invalidate Ozment's pardon.

by R.L. Nave
Feb. 15, 2012

On the night of Dec. 7, 1992, Joseph Ozment and three friends arrived to rob J & R's Old Store in Hernando and found Ricky A. Montgomery there, working alone. During the robbery, one of Ozment's accomplices shot Montgomery three times, though not fatally. Ozment, fearing Montgomery would be able to identify him, delivered two more bullets to the head of the 40-year-old clerk, who was begging for help.

An anonymous caller, who'd been at the store shortly before 11 p.m., told police had seen three suspicious black men leave the store and speed off in a gray Chevrolet. Ten days later, DeSoto County sheriff's deputies arrested three black men--Shinault Young, Tracy Blackburn and Kelvin Earl Todd--and Ozment, who is white. All were students at Northwest Mississippi Community College, and each was charged with armed robbery and murder.

Ozment, who at 21 was the oldest member of the gang, turned state's evidence on the others and pleaded guilty to simple murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery to avoid the death penalty. In 1993, he received a life sentence with parole eligibility after 10 years and was sent to the state penitentiary at Parchman.

It was around that time that he met a young college student named LaChina Tillman. Tillman, who was a little younger than Ozment when they met, was studying computer engineering at Mississippi State University and visiting her older brother, Geno, who was serving a life sentence for a murder he committed in 1990. LaChina Tillman and Ozment became friends, and then more.

Tillman wasn't the only person who found Ozment charming. Ozment apparently thought of himself as a good catch. An old web page for Mississippi Prison Pals carries a personals ad for Ozment in which he describes himself as a "interesting, fun, imaginative, confined body, caring heart, free soul, open mind, single, white male...light brown eyes, collegiate student, athlete; open, honest, sincere, and affectionate--sensitive, happy, loving, and desiring attraction--educated, intellectual, vast variety of interests, unlimited."

Ozment and Tillman maintained their relationship throughout his incarceration. A Bay St. Louis native, Tillman went on to finish her engineering degree and secure a job with Northrop Grumman, a Fortune 500 company that specializes in aerospace and military contract work. Her LinkedIn profile lists her job title as lead surface system architect with the company. In fact, her credentials are so impressive that Women of Color magazine named her a 2008 Rising Star in the category of science, technology, engineering and math.

Ozment's jailhouse jobs, according to the resume Memphis television station WMC-TV obtained, included working as a teacher's aide and recreational orderly, and as a "cook" at the governor's mansion for Marsha and Haley Barbour, both of whom Ozment lists as employment references.

The relationship between Tillman and Ozment came into focus in January when Attorney General Jim Hood circulated the couple's wedding save-the-date announcement. Ozment had been the target of a weeks-long hunt by investigators after he received a pardon Jan. 6 for the 18-year-old crime.

Hood's officers tracked Ozment to Colorado, where they believed Tillman was living, and then to Laramie, Wyo. Property records show that Tillman purchased a $305,000 home in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Ozment's resume listed his address as Olive Branch).

"It's unfortunate how things have occurred at the mansion and how these prisoners were handled," Hood said at a January press conference, noting that Ozment was dressed in street clothes in the photos rather than the striped green-and-white jumpsuit that minimum-security inmates are required to wear.

"This guy's got a tattoo with Aryan Brotherhood on his back, and this lady--who has a college degree and is an engineer and is doing very well--has taken up with him."

Tillman visited Ozment at the mansion more than a dozen times, and the two even took photographs for their wedding announcement there, according to Hood.

Robert Moxley, Ozment's attorney initially lashed out at Hood, saying he was "disappointed" in Hood for characterizing Ozment as a white supremacist when his bride-to-be is African American. "He does have a tattoo on his back, but it's not a white supremacist gang tattoo," Moxley told the Jackson Free Press recently. But when asked what the tattoo is, Moxley said: "I'll be damned if I know. It's not a gang tattoo; it's innocuous."

Moxley said officials at Marshall County Correctional Facility, who said Ozment wasn't a "gangbanger."

"They say they know darn well he never had any kind of gang affiliation," Moxley said last week. He called Ozment and Tillman's tale "a love story." Moxley confirmed they met years ago when Tillman was visiting someone in prison--he was not "legally positive" that person was her brother--and became friends. The relationship blossomed from there, Moxley said: "They have been planning a life together. It's a legitimate romance."

Mary McAbee, Ricky Montgomery's sister, is less enchanted with Ozment even if he is 1,300 miles away. She spoke briefly with reporters after the Supreme Court hearing on the pardons' constitutionality.

"I'm a little nervous about that because you never know," she said of Ozment's living out west. "He has his full freedom. He can go anywhere he wants and do anything he wants to do."

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