MANCHESTER, N.H. – Adam Montgomery, the New Hampshire father accused of killing his daughter, 5-year-old Harmony Montgomery, was found guilty of second-degree murder on Thursday.
Montgomery was also found guilty of second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, abuse of a corpse, and witness tampering.
Jurors deliberated for about seven hours after getting the case on Wednesday. They asked the judge one question Thursday about the legal definition of the word “recklessly.”
Montgomery was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read. He chose not to be in the courtroom for the entirety of the trial.
Harmony’s birth mother Crystal Sorey and foster mother Michelle Raftery were both in the room when the verdict was read.
“He’s a coward. He’s a coward, he’s always been a coward,” Sorey said. “That’s why he did what he did. He took her away from the people that loved her because he couldn’t hack that he didn’t have control. That’s all he cared about, control, everything in his life. She wasn’t anything to him.”
Montgomery will be sentenced some time after April 1. Sorey said she plans to be in court when Montgomery is sentenced and will give a victim impact statement.
“I hope that what he did plays over in his mind every single waking moment that he lives on this earth,” Sorey said. “And I hope that he never falls asleep without seeing her beautiful face.”
The verdict comes after about two weeks of emotional and, at times, gruesome testimony.
“It’s a very big relief that they have seen through and that they have held him accountable for the actions that he’s committed,” prosecutor Benjamin Agati said on Thursday.
Jurors heard closing arguments Wednesday before starting deliberations on a second-degree murder charge. Police first learned Harmony was missing in December 2021 and later said she was killed, though her body was never found.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu called Adam Montgomery “a monster” after the verdict was read.
“I am grateful to the judge, jury, and Department of Justice for delivering justice for Harmony. Adam Montgomery is a monster and deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison,” Sununu said in a statement.
The jury deliberated for about two hours Wednesday and for about four more hours on Thursday before reaching a verdict.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Caroline Smith said Montgomery moved the body and hid it because of “a very misguided belief” he had to do so “to keep his family from being ripped apart.”
Agati told jurors a different story. He said Montgomery, 34, was angry that his daughter was having bathroom accidents inside the car they were living in after they were evicted from their home. He said Montgomery punched her in the head until she died.
“All he has is his car, and his rage, and his fists,” Agati said, later adding, “She doesn’t get a headstone in the ground above the head that he battered. She doesn’t get to be at peace and death because of what he did, because he can’t afford to tell anyone where she is.”
David Lane/Union Leader via AP, Pool
Adam Montgomery is serving a 30-year prison sentence for an unrelated gun conviction. He said in court in an unrelated case last year that he loves Harmony “unconditionally” and did not kill her. He had pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
Montgomery’s defense attorney argued that his client’s estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, was responsible for Harmony’s death.
Montgomery’s attorneys acknowledged his guilt on two lesser charges earlier in the trial, saying that he “purposely and unlawfully removed, concealed or destroyed” his daughter’s corpse and falsified physical evidence.
Investigators believe Harmony was murdered in December 2019, though she wasn’t reported missing for nearly two years. Kayla Montgomery testified the body was hidden in the trunk of a car, a cooler, a ceiling vent, and a workplace freezer before Adam disposed of it.
Kayla Montgomery testified that her husband repeatedly punched Harmony in the head because the girl had wet herself. She said her family, including the couple’s two young sons, had been evicted and were living in their car. According to Kayla, Adam punched Harmony at several stop lights as they drove from a methadone clinic to a fast food restaurant on the morning of Dec. 7, 2019.
Adam Montgomery’s attorneys said that the only person who knew how Harmony died – Kayla – was lying. They said that Harmony actually died the night before Kayla said she did, and that Kayla was alone with her at the time.
