Man charged in Charleston slaying 5 years ago

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A North Charleston man in prison for killing a man nearly two years ago has now been charged with killing a woman in Charleston in 2006.

Thirty-year-old Tommy Montgomery was charged Monday in the death of 43-year-old Pamela Washington more than five years ago.

Investigators say the state’s policy of taking DNA samples from new prison inmates led to the charges against Montgomery.

Montgomery was in Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia serving a 30-year sentence after pleading guilty but mentally ill in the 2009 stabbing death of Brandon Jamison, the music director of the church Montgomery attended.

Washington was beaten and her throat was slashed. Her body was found in a park.