Bio

Marco Antonio Montez was born on April 22, 1962. By 1987, Montez was in Oregon and became connected with Candice Straub and Timothy Aikens. Montez, Aikens, and Straub met while working as strawberry pickers. The relationship between the three later became part of the murder case because Montez and Aikens were accused of attacking Straub in a Portland motel room.

Murder Story

On June 20, 1987, Marco Antonio Montez and Timothy Aikens attacked 26-year-old Candice Straub in a Portland motel room. Court and death-row summaries state that Straub was beaten, raped, and sodomized. She was then strangled with a sheet, and her body was set on fire.

Montez and Aikens were later arrested and charged in connection with Straub’s death. Aikens received a life sentence. Montez was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death on June 16, 1988.

During the first appeal, the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed Montez’s aggravated murder conviction but reversed his death sentence. The reversal was connected to death-penalty sentencing instructions and the need for juries to properly consider mitigating evidence. The case was sent back for a new penalty-phase proceeding.

After resentencing, Montez was again sentenced to death on August 24, 1992. In 1996, the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed the second death sentence, and the United States Supreme Court later declined review.

Montez remained on Oregon’s death row for many years. In December 2022, Oregon Governor Kate Brown commuted the sentences of all 17 people on Oregon’s death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Montez was listed among those whose death sentence was commuted.