Candy Montgomery’s main trial lawyer, Texas attorney Don Crowder, went through a dramatic rise and fall after the case, and he ultimately died by suicide in the late 1990s.

Who was Candy Montgomery’s lawyer?

  • Candy Montgomery was represented by civil attorney Don Crowder, working with criminal defense lawyer Robert Udashen in her 1980 murder trial in McKinney, Texas.
  • The case became the defining moment of Crowder’s career , turning him into a local celebrity because he won an acquittal in a highly publicized, brutal killing.

What happened to Don Crowder after the trial?

  • The Montgomery verdict made Crowder famous in Texas legal circles and in the media, and he openly called the case either “the zenith of an extraordinarily successful career, or the demise of what could have been.”
  • In the years that followed, he struggled with the long-term emotional and professional fallout; accounts describe him wrestling with the pressure and attention that came from defending someone many believed to be a murderer.

His later life and death

  • Crowder eventually left day‑to‑day trial work, but the Montgomery case remained the story people associated with him, especially once TV dramatizations like “Candy” and “Love & Death” revived interest.
  • According to biographical reports on his life, Don Crowder died by suicide in 1998, ending a career that had been deeply marked—both positively and painfully—by the Candy Montgomery trial.

What about the other lawyer, Robert Udashen?

  • Co‑counsel Robert Udashen has said the case was a huge learning experience that helped launch him into a long, successful criminal defense career.
  • He continued practicing law and became known in Texas as a respected appellate and criminal defense attorney, often referenced when new series or articles revisit the Montgomery story.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.