New Hampshire man sentenced to minimum 56 years for murder, other charges in his daughter’s death

CONCORD, NH – A New Hampshire man convicted of killing his 5-year-old daughter and moving her corpse for months before disposing of it was sentenced Thursday to a minimum of 56 years in prison for murder and other charges.

That sentence will be added to the 32-and-a-half-year minimum sentence that Adam Montgomery, 34, began last year on unrelated gun charges, making it unlikely he will ever get out of prison following his actions in Harmony Montgomery’s death. Police believe she was killed almost two years before she was reported missing in 2021. Her body was never found.

Montgomery did not attend his trial in February. He was ordered by the judge to appear in court Thursday after his attorney asked that he be excused, saying Montgomery has maintained his innocence on charges of second-degree murder, second-degree assault and witness tampering. He admitted to abusing a corpse and falsifying evidence.

His ex-wife, Kayla Montgomery, testified that her family, including her two young children with Adam Montgomery, had been evicted just before Thanksgiving in 2019 and were living in a car. She said that on December 7, Adam Montgomery punched Harmony Montgomery at several traffic lights as they were driving from a methadone clinic to a fast food restaurant because he was angry that the child was having accidents in the car’s bathroom.

Afterward, she said she delivered food to the children in the car without checking on Harmony Montgomery and that the couple later discovered she was dead after the car broke down. She testified that her husband placed the body in a backpack. She described several places where the girl’s body was hidden, including the trunk of a car, a refrigerator, a central roof vent and the freezer at her husband’s workplace.

During Adam Montgomery’s trial, his lawyers suggested that Kayla continue lying to protect herself. They said her client didn’t kill Harmony and that Kayla Montgomery was the last person to see the child alive.

Kayla Montgomery testified that she did not speak out about the child’s death because she was afraid of her husband. She said Adam Montgomery suspected she might go to the police, so he started punching her, giving her black eyes, she said. She finally ran away from him in March 2021.

Kayla Montgomery was recently paroled. She is expected to be released from prison shortly after serving an 18-month sentence. She pleaded guilty to perjury charges related to the investigation into the child’s disappearance and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Adam Montgomery had custody of the girl. His mother, Crystal Sorey, who was no longer in a relationship with him, said the last time she saw Harmony Montgomery was during a video call in April 2019. She eventually went to the police, who announced they were searching for the missing child in New York. Teams. New Year’s Eve 2021.

Harmony Montgomery’s case exposed weaknesses in child protection systems and sparked calls to prioritize the well-being of children over parents in custody matters. Harmony was moved between her mother’s home and her adoptive parents several times before Adam Montgomery was granted custody in 2019 and moved to New Hampshire.

Authorities plan to continue searching for the girl’s remains, which are believed to be along a route that Adam Montgomery drove in a rented truck to Massachusetts in March 2020.