Update: The jury started deliberating at 1 p.m. and broke for the day at about 4 p.m. and will resume deliberating Thursday.
By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Is Adam Montgomery a loving father who covered up his daughter’s death to keep his family together, or is he a cold-blooded killer and vicious family tyrant?
Jurors are now deciding if Adam Montgomery is guilty of murdering his daughter, Harmony Montgomery, 5, after hearing two weeks of testimony. Adam Montgomery’s attorney, Caroline Smith, implored jurors to see the evidence as it is, uncolored by their emotions.
“He did not kill his daughter, he did not kill his baby girl,” Smith said in her closing arguments.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati told jurors that same evidence is clear: Adam Montgomery is a killer.
“Adam Montgomery was no loving, caring parent, but an enraged tyrant who had no business being around young Harmony,” Agati said.
Adam Montgomery has refused to be present throughout the entire trial. He is charged with second-degree murder, second-degree assault, witness tampering, falsifying physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. While he denies killing his daughter, his defense team acknowledged to the jury at the outset he did abuse Harmony’s corpse and falsify physical evidence.
The trial started two weeks ago in Hillsborough Superior Court — North in Manchester with jury selection, and wrapped up Wednesday with the closing arguments. The state finished presenting evidence Tuesday, and Adam Montgomery’s defense team rested without presenting any of their own evidence or witnesses.
Now, the defense case hinges largely on whether or not jurors believe Kayla Montgomery’s version of Harmony’s death on Dec. 7, 2019. Smith said Kayla Montgomery’s story that her husband Adam Montgomery murdered the girl in a rage over her frequent bathroom accidents is crazy. Kayla Montgomery came up with her story to avoid police charging her for Harmony’s death, Smith said.
“She had to lie because the truth would point to her,” Smith said.
Kayla Montgomery is currently in prison for perjury convictions after she lied to a 2022 grand jury empaneled in the case. According to Smith, Harmony died sometime overnight between Dec. 6 and Dec. 7, 2019, when she was alone in the car with Kayla Montgomery and her two young step-brothers.
Agati disputes the characterization of Kayla Montgomery as an unreliable witness, saying she lied after months of physical abuse Adam Montgomery used to keep her from telling the truth.
“He beat, manipulated, and controlled Kayla afterwards so he would not be held accountable,” Agati said.
As for the theory Harmony died while alone with Kayla Montgomery, Agati said the defense provided zero evidence to back that claim. Adam Montgomery’s admission to hiding Harmony’s body for months before he threw her away only adds credence to the murder charge, Agati said.
“He’s a murderer. Getting rid of evidence, that’s what murderers do,” Agati said.
Smith told jurors Adam Montgomery agreed to hide Harmony’s body because he did not want the rest of his children taken away and his family broken up. But Agati said Adam Montgomery never cared about Harmony, seeing her as an object rather than a person.
“She was never a daughter to him. He killed somebody he didn’t see as a daughter, that he didn’t see as a blessing,” Agati said. “He may have genetically donated half of his DNA to her, but he was never a father.”
Harmony’s body has never been found.
Harmony was reported missing in 2021 by her biological mother, Crystal Sorey. Her disappearance became national news as the Manchester community rallied to find her, and a $150,000 reward was offered for information that brought her home.
What Sorey and the rest of the world did not know in 2021 is that Harmony was already dead. Sorey lost custody of Harmony due to her drug addiction and had not seen the little girl since 2018. At age 5, Harmony weighed 35 pounds, according to a medical check up in the summer of 2019.
After Harmony’s death, Kayla and Adam Montgomery lied to their friends, family, and later police. They told everyone that Harmony had gone to live with Sorey in late 2019, and Adam Montgomery claimed he was unable to see his daughter.
According to the state’s case: both Kayla and Adam Montgomery were opioid addicts in 2019 when they were evicted from their Manchester apartment in late November of that year. With nowhere to go, the family of two adults and three young children started living in Adam Montgomery’s car.
Adam and Kayla Montgomery used what little cash they had, as well as food stamp benefits, to buy drugs. The family resorted to eating baby food at times.
In the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 2019, Harmony had an accident and soiled herself, setting off a violent rage from her father. He began punching Harmony in the face, and refused to let Kayla Montgomery clean the child.
After daybreak, the family drove to a Manchester methadone clinic. When Adam Montgomery returned from getting his drugs, he became angry again at the smell, and resumed punching Harmony. The assaults continued as Adam Montgomery drove the family to a Burger King, though Adam Montgomery stopped after one particularly hard punch.
“I think I did something this time,” he reportedly said.
Harmony moaned and made a gurgling noise from under her blankets in the back of the car as Adam Montgomery ordered drive-thru food and drove back to the Colonial Village apartment complex where they parked their temporary home. In the parking lot, Adam Montgomery ate his Burger King and did drugs.
A short time later the family was driving in the city when Adam Montgomery’s Chrysler Sebring broke down. That’s when Adam and Kayla Montgomery realized Harmony was dead.
“Wake up baby girl, baby girl, wake up,” a despondent Adam Montgomery reportedly said to his lifeless daughter.
That’s when Adam Montgomery put Harmony into a duffle bag to conceal her death. He kept the child’s decomposing body in a bag, a cooler, and later a maternity tote bag, for months as the family moved around the city. At one point, Adam Montgomery kept Harmony’s bagged body in the freezer at his restaurant job.
In late February of 2020, Adam Montgomery defrosted his daughter in the bathtub at a Union Street apartment they were renting. In an apparent attempt to speed up Harmony’s decomposition, he allegedly cut her up with a power tool and squished her in order to fit her body into the bag now packed with crushed lime.
In early March of that year, Adam Montgomery had a friend rent a UHaul truck which he then used to drive alone into Massachusetts. It is believed he disposed of Harmony’s body on that trip, possibly while on the Tobin Bridge in Boston.