New Hampshire Court Overturns Adam Montgomery Murder Conviction, Orders Retrial in 2019 Harmony Case
Updated
Updated · InDepthNH.org · Jun 11
New Hampshire Court Overturns Adam Montgomery Murder Conviction, Orders Retrial in 2019 Harmony Case
3 articles · Updated · InDepthNH.org · Jun 11
Summary
A unanimous New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling threw out Adam Montgomery’s second-degree murder conviction in the death of 5-year-old Harmony Montgomery and sent that charge back to Hillsborough Superior Court for a new trial.
The court said prosecutors did not sufficiently corroborate Kayla Montgomery’s account that Adam fatally punched Harmony on Dec. 7, 2019, and found that trying the murder count alongside a stronger assault charge unfairly prejudiced jurors.
Other convictions were left intact, including falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering, second-degree assault and abuse of a corpse, so Montgomery remains imprisoned even as the murder case is retried.
Harmony’s body has never been found; prosecutors said Adam hid her remains for months in coolers, refrigerators and ceilings before disposing of them somewhere between Manchester and Massachusetts.
The ruling lands amid wider scrutiny of child-protection failures before Harmony’s death, after her mother Crystal Sorey settled a $2.25 million lawsuit with the state and won a $15 million civil judgment against Montgomery last month.