Adam Montgomery, center, flanked by two images of his daughter, Harmony Montgomery (via Manchester Police Department).
Attorneys for a New Hampshire man accused of beating his 5-year-old daughter to death with his bare hands want several pieces of potential evidence excluded from his upcoming murder trial.
Adam Montgomery, 33, stands accused of murder in the second degree for allegedly causing the death of Harmony Montgomery “by repeatedly striking” her “in the head with a closed fist.”
The defendant has consistently maintained his innocence. Despite yearslong search efforts, the girl has never been found.
The defense exclusionary requests, however, appear to offer some insight into how the state might account for the lack of the child’s body.
Public defenders Caroline Smith and James Brooks recently complained that the state plans to introduce evidence their client purchased two 40-pound bags of pelletized limestone from two separate Home Depots in late February 2020, according to court documents obtained by the New Hampshire Union Leader.
The first purchase allegedly occurred at the store in Hooksett. The second purchase allegedly occurred at the location in Manchester. Each time, prosecutors allege, Adam Montgomery paid in cash.
The second shopping trip to the popular hardware store included a markedly more substantial shopping list. In addition to the lime, the defendant allegedly purchased a metal-cutting diamond blade, a power grinder, and a lithium-ion battery and charger for the tool.
The defense claims the state will explicitly attempt to tie at least some of those purchases to the treatment of the presumed dead girl’s body — by way of testimony from Kayla Montgomery, the defendant’s estranged wife. Kayla Montgomery, according to the defense, will likely testify her husband used the lime to “tamper with Harmony Montgomery’s remains,” but will remain agnostic about the source of the lime and whether or not the power tool was used at all.
“There is no evidence that lime is such a unique purchase that would connect the purchases to the Montgomerys,” Smith and Brooks wrote in the motion. “The police did not check other hardware stores, agricultural stores, or other locations that may have sold lime.”
Regardless of her potential testimony, Kayla Montgomery is believed to be a key witness for the state in the forthcoming murder trial. And the allegations concerning the lime are not entirely new.
Earlier this year, she told investigators that her husband was responsible for the death of the girl who was briefly her stepdaughter.
At the time of the alleged murder, the Montgomery family was living out of a car. Adam Montgomery grew increasingly angry at the young girl over having bathroom accidents in the vehicle.
Adam Montgomery’s rage toward his daughter culminated on Dec. 7, 2019, Kayla Montgomery told investigators. On that day, “Adam struck Harmony in the face/head on three separate occasions because she had a bathroom accident,” an affidavit says.
“This happened while Adam was driving the vehicle; Kayla described that Harmony was in the rear seat on the passenger side, and while Adam was driving he turned his body and delivered sets of three-to-four blows with a closed fist to Harmony’s face/head on three separate occasions over the course of a few minutes,” the affidavit goes on. “Kayla stated that after the final blow, Adam said words to the effect of that he felt something or heard something when he hit Harmony.”
“I think I really hurt her this time,” Adam Montgomery allegedly said after the attack, his wife recalled. “I think I did something.”
After the violence, Kayla Montgomery told investigators, the family returned to the parking lot of the apartment complex where they had consistently been parking their Chrysler Sebring since being evicted. Later, she said, they realized the girl was dead and Adam Montgomery placed her body into a red and black Under Armour duffel bag.
According to Kayla Montgomery, her husband kept Harmony Montgomery’s body in the duffel bag and moved it around for several months. In the immediate aftermath of her death, Kayla Montgomery told investigators, her husband occasionally kept his daughter’s body outside in the snow to slow down the process of decomposition.
For months, Kayla Montgomery told investigators, her husband moved the girl’s remains around — even keeping her in the walk-in freezer of a restaurant where he worked as a dishwasher and a cook. Eventually, the estranged wife said, Adam Montgomery used lime to try and dissolve some of his daughter’s frozen body while “squishing” her flesh — and how she helped cut away the child’s clothes to make her body fit inside a tote bag bearing the logo of a Catholic maternity hospital.
The defense also recently moved to have a Dec. 31, 2021, interaction between Adam Montgomery and police barred from his trial, according to Manchester-based ABC affiliate WMUR.
“We just need to find out where she is to make sure she’s OK,” an officer tells the defendant.
“Right now, I have nothing to say to you guys,” Adam Montgomery replies.
The girl was only reported missing by her mother in December 2021. Crystal Sorey had custody of her daughter on and off for years between 2014 and 2018 due to substance abuse issues.
Adam Montgomery has been in jail since January 2022 for allegedly assaulting his daughter. He has since been charged, tried, and convicted of several gun-related crimes. Amid the investigation into the girl’s disappearance, Kayla Montgomery was charged with fraud for continuing to collect public benefits even after Harmony Montgomery was no longer alive — she was also later charged with lying to a grand jury. As part of her plea deal in those cases, the defendant’s wife will testify against him in his trial slated to begin on Feb. 6 in Hillsborough County Superior Court.
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