Father of Harmony Montgomery has conviction for her murder overturned

The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the murder conviction of a man who was accused of killing his 5-year-old-daughter and moving her body around for months before disposing it.

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Adam Montgomery was convicted of second-degree murder in 2024 in connection with the December 2019 death of his daughter, Harmony Montgomery. Adam Montgomery was also convicted of second degree assault for having struck his daughter in July 2019, falsifying physical evidence, and witness tampering. He was sentenced to 56 years to life in prison for the crimes.

In its decision to reverse Adam Montgomery’s murder conviction, the court argued that his murder and assault charges should not have been tried together, and that doing so prevented Adam Montgomery from the right to a fair trial.

“As compared to the evidence of multiple disinterested witnesses substantiating the July assault, the evidence of the December 7, 2019 fatal attack is substantially weaker,” the court ruled. “We therefore conclude that this disparity created a significant risk that the jury would rely on the strength of the evidence that the defendant struck the victim in anger in July to conclude that, as Kayla testified, he similarly — and fatally — struck the victim in December.”

The court also argued that evidence for the murder charge — largely presented through testimony by Adam Montgomery’s wife, Kayla Montgomery — was not strong enough for conviction.

Kayla Montgomery testified that her husband stored their daughter’s body in multiple locations, including a ceiling vent at a homeless shelter and a walk-in freezer at his workplace, and her husband’s plans to dismember their daughter’s body.

“This evidence, however, supports only Kayla’s testimony about the defendant’s actions after the victim’s death; it does not corroborate Kayla’s testimony that the defendant killed the victim on December 7 by repeatedly punching her in the head,” the court ruled.

The state justices also challenged the state’s other evidence, testimony from one of Adam Montgomery’s friends.

Prosecutors said that Adam Montgomery asked the same friend to rent him a U-Haul in March 2020, which they said he used to move his daughter’s corpse, according to the ruling. The friend testified, according to the ruling, that he witnessed Adam Montgomery “pacing back and forth, repeating ‘I f**ked up’” that night.

“This evidence does support the proposition that the defendant displayed a consciousness of guilt for something he had done,” the justices wrote. “It does not, however, corroborate Kayla’s account of the victim’s death.”

Montgomery will not be freed from prison in the wake of the reversal. He is currently serving a minimum 32 1/2-year sentence in prison for unrelated gun crimes that began in 2023.

He also faces additional decades in prison for the assault charge he was found guilty of in connection with the July 2019 incident, which the court affirmed in its ruling.

His attorney, Pamela Phelan, said in a statement that the “court’s decision addresses important aspects of a fair trial.”

“Justice is only served when we provide a person accused of a crime a fair and just trial,” she said. “A trial that is not conducted with those principles in mind does not do justice to persons accused of a crime or people who are victims of crimes.”

A spokesperson for the State of New Hampshire Department of Justice did not immediately return a request for comment on whether the department would pursue a new murder trial.

Harmony Montgomery was first reported missing in 2021, nearly two years after prosecutors said she was killed. Her body was never found.