Adam Montgomery was found guilty in February of second-degree murder in the 2019 death of his daughter Harmony, who was reported missing in 2021.
Prosecutors have asked that Montgomery be sentenced to 56 years to life in prison for all of the crimes, according to a sentencing memo.
Each time the defendant struck Harmony, he had an opportunity to stop,” the sentencing memo states.
Sorey reported Harmony missing in November 2021, saying she hadn’t seen her daughter since a FaceTime call in the spring of 2019.
He only stopped striking Harmony when he felt something ‘different’ and acknowledged out loud that he believed he ‘really hurt her this time,’” the sentencing memo reads.
In the two years after murdering Harmony, prosecutors said Montgomery told others, including law enforcement officers, that his daughter was alive and well with her mother in Massachusetts.
Montgomery then embarked on a “strategy of blaming others for Harmony’s injuries and death,” the sentencing memo states.
In the sentencing memo, prosecutors argued that Montgomery’s “extensive” criminal history, which includes threatening a teenager with a knife and shooting a person in the face during a robbery, should be considered in his sentencing.
In a case that has strained ties between Massachusetts and New Hampshire and prompted an inquiry into the work of the child protective services system, a man from New Hampshire who was found guilty of killing his 5-year-old daughter may receive a life sentence on Thursday.
Harmony Montgomery, Adam Montgomery’s daughter who went missing in 2021, was killed in 2019; Montgomery was found guilty in February of second-degree murder. Court documents state that he was also found guilty of second-degree assault, witness tampering, fabricating physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse.
According to a sentencing memo, Montgomery’s prosecutors have requested that he serve 56 years to life in prison for each of the crimes. One witness claimed he “admitted to her that he hated Harmony to his core,” according to the prosecutors, who claimed he has shown no remorse for killing his daughter. “.
“The murder was not an instantaneous, spontaneous deed. The sentencing memo says that the defendant had a chance to stop striking Harmony every time he did.
CNN contacted Caroline Smith and James Brooks, Montgomery’s attorneys, for a response.
According to the authorities, Harmony died in Manchester in December 2019. Although a judge ruled her legally dead in March at her mother Crystal Sorey’s request, her remains have not been located, according to CNN affiliate WMUR.
Prosecutors stated in the sentencing memo that Montgomery killed Harmony on December 7, 2019, and that he then spent “transportation and consolidation of her body over three months” before disposing of her body on March 4, 2020.
“Harmony has been deprived of a proper burial despite the defendant’s admission during the trial that he disposed of her body,” the sentencing memo states.
both inside and beyond foster care.
Harmony was placed in foster care and her mother’s care for a period of time before a judge decided to give Montgomery custody of Harmony in 2019, according to a 101-page report by the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate.
According to the article, Harmony was born in June 2014, had other health issues, and was blind in one eye.
According to the report, a Department of Children and Families office received allegations of neglect during the baby’s time living with her substance-abusing mother that summer. According to the report, Harmony’s father was “not involved in Harmony’s life” and was incarcerated at the time of her birth.
According to the report, Harmony was taken from her mother’s custody and placed in a foster home by law. Over the course of several years, Harmony was placed in and out of the Department of Children and Families’ custody.
Over the next few years, Montgomery and his daughter had sporadic contact and supervised visits; however, the report states that in October 2018, Montgomery requested that Harmony be placed under his care.
He was granted full custody in February 2019 after a judge determined that he was a fit parent and that a home study regarding Montgomery under the Interstate Compact of the Placement of Children (ICPS), a multistate agreement governing child placement, was not applicable for constitutional reasons.
According to the report, Montgomery then drove his daughter to New Hampshire about a week after the hearing and the Department of Children and Families’ intervention came to an end.
In November 2021, Sorey filed a missing person’s report for Harmony, claiming not to have seen her daughter since a FaceTime conversation in the spring of 2019. Montgomery was apprehended in early 2022 after Manchester Police declared a search for her whereabouts.
Much attention has been focused on the judge’s choice to place Harmony with her father. New Hampshire Gov. Regarding the ruling, Chris Sununu penned a critical letter to the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The 101-page report on Harmony’s case, written in response by the Massachusetts Office of Child Advocate, revealed that state representatives gave precedence to Harmony’s parents’ rights over her welfare.
OCA director Maria Mossaides stated, “Our system ultimately failed her by not putting her and her needs first.”. Our system can perform better in the future because of the adjustments we owe her. “.
The sentencing memo mentions beatings.
A 2019 incident in which Montgomery struck Harmony “with such force that he altered the profile of her face” was the source of some of the charges, according to the prosecution’s sentencing memo. “.
According to the memo, Montgomery killed Harmony on December 7 after attacking her multiple times on December 7 following an incident in the restroom.
“While driving, the defendant struck Harmony multiple times, repeatedly halting at traffic lights to carry out the attack. The sentencing memo states that he didn’t stop hitting Harmony until he sensed something “different” and publicly admitted that he thought he had “really hurt her this time.”.
Prosecutors claimed that Montgomery might have prevented some of Harmony’s suffering or possibly saved her life if she had sought assistance from her following the attacks. According to them, his decision to abstain showed a degree of “cruelty and depravity” that calls for a sentence greater than the minimum.
Montgomery allegedly told people, including law enforcement, that his daughter was well and alive in Massachusetts, with her mother, during the two years following Harmony’s murder, according to the prosecution.
According to the sentencing memo, Montgomery then started a “strategy of blaming others for Harmony’s injuries and death.”.
The prosecution claimed that he made up a lie about what had happened to Harmony and physically assaulted Kayla Montgomery, Harmony’s stepmother, to force her to tell the story.
According to a parole hearing and court documents, Kayla Montgomery entered a guilty plea in 2022 to lying to a grand jury about her whereabouts the last time her stepdaughter was seen. She was given parole in March after testifying against her divorcing husband in February.
Montgomery’s “extensive” criminal history, which includes shooting someone in the face during a robbery and threatening a teenager with a knife, should be taken into account when determining his sentence, according to the sentencing memo from the prosecution.
