Crime Weekly - Court Overturns Murder Conviction of Harmony Montgomery's Killer

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

Adam Montgomery's second-degree murder conviction in the death of five-year-old Harmony Montgomery has been overturned by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which ruled that trying the murder and assault charges together jeopardized his right to a fair trial. Harmony was believed to have been killed by her father, Adam, in December 2019, but her disappearance wasn't reported until nearly two years later. Her body has never been found. Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: https://www.Wildgrain.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for $30 off your first box and FREE croissants for LIFE! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Lavasher. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And today we're starting with a major update in a case that has haunted people across the country, the case of five-year-old Harmony Montgomery. Her father, Adam Montgomery, was convicted in 2004 of second-degree murder in her death. But the New Hampshire Supreme Court has now overturned that murder conviction, ruling that the murder charge should have been tried separately from the earlier assault charge. His other convictions still stand. And the prosecutors say they plan to retry the murder. case, but obviously this is a huge development and I don't know much about this case at all. I've heard Harmony's name before, but this was something where I saw it coming across my feed today and I could see the visceral reactions to this and just from the surface level it sounds obviously warranted. But Stephanie's going to walk you through the background of Harmony's case if you're not familiar with it either and also let you know how we got here. Yeah, so this is a case that I covered on my channel years ago. Not surprised.

Yeah, you know, and I told you, you were like, should we talk about this update? I was like, this is going to piss you off, Derek. This case is going to piss you off. They always do. I know how sensitive I am about cases involving small children when it's abuse, neglect, things like this. I know how sensitive you are about it. We have shared that for years. I wonder if we should cover this on Crime Weekly because obviously I'm going to give a quick synopsis

so I can bring us from where we started to where we are now with this new update. But there's a lot that happened in this case. It goes pretty deep. There's a lot of details that came out during Adam Montgomery's trial. And we probably should do a series on Harmony Montgomery. So let us know in the comments if you would like to see a full Crime Weekly style breakdown of Harmony Montgomery's case. Especially now, right? I mean, it would be a really good time to do it because not.

only with this new news, but also for anyone who's not familiar with the details of the case, there's going to be a new murder trial. So this would be an opportunity to break down the case from a fresh perspective and see if they feel like the outcome is going to be the same. And I think for me and for anybody else who doesn't have all the details, that would be, that would be important. There shouldn't have to be a new murder trial. It's out. No, this sounds like a technicality. It sounds like a technicality. It's absolutely ridiculous. Just on the surface without knowing anything about the case, it doesn't appear that there's going to be a different outcome, but it's still just retramatizing everybody involved with this that now has to go there and experience this and go through it once again. Adam doesn't give a shit because he has nothing to lose everything to gain, but everybody else, everyone from that community has to now relive these events like they didn't happen the first time.

So that's the real tragedy here. Yeah, this is bad. So let us know in the comment section. I think I know the answer. If you want us to cover this on Crime Weekly, but Harmony Montgomery was a five-year-old girl from New Hampshire, whose case became one of those devastating, how did every system miss this stories? Harmony was born in 2014. She had serious vision problems.

She was blind in one eye. But by many accounts, she was affectionate, bright and deeply loved by her biological mother, Crystal Sory. Crystal, however, had some issues. She struggled with substance. She lost custody for periods of time. And in 2019, Harmony's father, Adam Montgomery, was granted custody. And this custody decision later became heavily scrutinized because Adam himself had issues. He had a violent criminal history.

And there had already been concerns raised about his treatment of Harmony. So by late 2019, Harmony was living with Adam and his wife, Kayla Montgomery, along with their children in Manchester, New Hampshire. The family was unstable, at times living in cars, moving from place. place to place. Prosecutors later said Harmony was being abused, neglected, and treated as a burden. And this is who they decided to place custody with. Yes, exactly. Someone who didn't even have a consistent home to live in. And that's nothing against people who are out there struggling. But I think it's fair to say that when you're trying to put a child into a home that's going to have structure and be consistent for them, which...

Well, they've already been through. Right. When they've already been through it, to put them in that situation, it's like going from the frying pan to the friar. don't know what her situation was before this custody decision was made. As you already mentioned, Crystal was going through her own battle. So maybe she wasn't capable of handling Harmony at that time. But that doesn't mean just because she can't, you put her with the other person. Well, that's why I said. This Harmony fell through the cracks of so many different systems. Yeah.

Now, the last known time Harmony was alive was around December of 2019. According to Kayla Montgomery's later testimony, her husband, Adam became enraged because Harmony had bathroom accidents in the car. Kayla said Adam repeatedly punched Harmony in the face and head while driving. Prosecutors alleged that those blows killed her, and instead of calling 911 or seeking help, Adam allegedly concealed her death. For nearly two years, Harmony was not publicly known to be missing. For two years, nobody asked, where is she?

Well, I mean, that's one of the most disturbing parts of this case, but Harmony's mother Crystal had been trying to find Harmony and eventually contacted police in late 2021. Harmony was last seen alive in late 2019. Insane. Yeah, you're right. I'm pissed already. Yeah. There we go. So when Manchester police began investigating, they discovered that no one had seen Harmony in person since 2019.

And then her father, Adam allegedly gave shifting explanations, including claiming that Harmony had gone back to live with Crystal, which was obviously not true. Yeah. Crystal was the one looking for. Yeah, the only one, really, at that point. And then as the investigation developed, prosecutors alleged that after Harmony died, Adam moved her body from place to place from months. According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, her remains were allegedly kept in bags and containers hidden in different locations,

including apartments, a shelter, possibly a workplace freezer, before Adam eventually disposed of her body. And Harmony's remains have still never been found. Oh, I need to know more because. Because how are they alleging that he moved her from place to place? And yet there's no evidence. Yeah, that's what kind of came out during the trial. So like I said, there's a lot that we discovered through Adam Montgomery's trial.

Hmm. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's interesting to me. And I also say neither of us are lawyers. So I don't understand the legality of having to try these crimes separately. there are two different charges. I get that. But I would think that the assault from what you're describing is what led to the death of Harmony, or it's a separate incident where she was assaulted but not killed on that particular occasion.

And they're saying that these two incidences should have been separate. To me it seems like a bunch of bullshit, but I'm sure there's something to it. From what I could tell, it was the assault. So Harmony had been abused. Repeatedly. Previously before this specific assault in the car. but it was this assault in the car that led to her death, according to prosecutors. Yeah, and this obviously just broke, so we don't have these answers.

But one question I have right now is, is this assault the same assault that they're alleging killed her or a separate incident where she was assaulted and it didn't result in death? Because as you just said, this was a repetitive thing. It didn't just happen on one occasion. And so I'm wondering if because it was two separate incidences, they're arguing they should have been tried separately. because if it were the same assault that their alleging killed her, I would think that it would be in the same trial. So we'll have those facts, especially if we decide to cover this in long form. So there is some indication, and we will talk about that.

But this is what his lawyers are alleging at least, right? So we know there's going to be any time someone's found guilty of something. And it's pretty obvious what happened. And then they make everybody sit through a whole trial to prove. what happened, then it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt enough for a jury to find them guilty and send them to prison. And then we know, without a doubt, a series of appeals will follow, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, there's got to be some validity to it because the Supreme Court, New Hampshire Supreme Court said, yeah, you're right. That doesn't mean there's validity to it.

That means there's some stupid legal loophole. No, but that's what I'm saying, not validity to the fact that he didn't do it, but validity to the fact that the process was not followed correctly. Yeah, well, listen. And that's stupid. And if it's true, then shame on the prosecutors because this is something that they have to catch in the beginning. So Adam Montgomery, as we know, was charged with second degree murder. Also, abuse of a corpse. Also, falsifying evidence.

Also, witness tampering. Also assault. And then his wife, Kayla Montgomery, who is no better than him, by the way. Let me just get that out there. I mean, I got no love for Kayla. You're the company you keep. Yeah, I got no love for Kayla in the least. Kayla originally lied to the investigators.

She later became a key witness for the prosecution to save her own ass, allegedly in my opinion. And she testified against Adam and described both the fatal beating and the aftermath. So we have that evidence from Kayla. And then in February of 2024, Adam was found guilty of murdering Harmony along with other related charges. So then in May of 2024, he was sentenced to a minimum of 56 years in prison on top of the time he was already serving for unrelated gun charges because this guy is a real, winter in life. He's just, you know, taking all the boxes for everything that a scumbag is. So let's take a quick break. Then we're going to come back and talk about the major updates that just broke today, June 11th, 2026. You know what instantly makes a house feel cozy?

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because evidence of the earlier assault may have unfairly influenced the jury on the murder charge. His convictions for abuse of a corpse, falsifying evidence, witness tampering, and assault remain in place. And like you said in the intro, prosecutors say they plan to retry the murder case. What does that mean exactly? First of all, I appreciate that the prosecutors are saying we plan to retry the murder case. But I do want to say that that doesn't always happen, by the way, sometimes depending on the appeal, depending on the case, depending on the evidence, depending on where things have evolved, they don't always bring that back up. Have you ever seen that happen? Because I have. No, for sure. And I think didn't we talk about the same thing with Leticia Stout and how one of her charges got overturned? And then they're like, well, we're going to, you know, bring her back and retry her. That was the first thing I thought about when I saw this this morning, which was Gannon Stout, right?

Like 11-year-old boy shot by his stepmom, Letitia Stout. And that charge was overturned. And again, another case where people have to relive this trauma. Just no justice for these young kids who are no longer here to speak for themselves or have anybody speak on their behalf. So basically what was decided on is that these combined cases, not the assaults that led to her death, but a prior assault case. Okay. That the justices unanimously agreed jeopardized Adams' right to a fair trial because juries may have used the stronger evidence about the past assault to conclude based on the weaker evidence of the assault that led to her death, which was. was pretty much provided by Kayla, that he killed her months after the previous assault.

The justices said, quote, there was a significant risk that the jury would draw the impermissible inference that because the defendant assaulted the victim before by striking her in the head, he must be the one who fatally assaulted her in December by again striking her in the head, end quote. Excuse my language. What the fuck are we talking about? Yeah, absolutely. Best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

If he beat her up in the past, the likelihood of him beating her up in the future and also escalating that violence is a reasonable conclusion to come to. This is nonsense. But. Now, listen, you even get this. It's crazy. Adam Montgomery didn't even attend his own trial in February of 2022. His lawyers called no defense witnesses. His attorneys acknowledged he was guilty of falsifying evidence and abusing a corpse.

But they said he didn't kill harmony. And instead, they said Harmony died while with her stepmother, Kayla Montgomery. So the fact that Kayla Montgomery is the one giving this damming testimony against Adam, saying that they were in the car and Adam, you know, punched her repeatedly and that's how she died. They're saying like, well, you know, he's saying Kayla did it. Kayla's saying he did it. And because we have evidence that he assaulted Harmony, his small daughter, by punching her in the head before, there's an unfair info.

drawn by the jury, which will state that he must have been the one who did it now. Like, what is going on here? I understand, but God damn it, what is going on? You're a man who already hit your daughter in the face, and you apparently, according to your lawyers, did touch and move her corpse afterwards, which means even if Kayla did it, you helped her cover it up. Yeah. What are we talking about here?

Yeah, no, it sounds to me reading between the lines. And I kind of gave the prosecutors a little first, but it seems like this was a strategic move where they combined the two cases to paint a picture of this monster to show this is what he had done to harmony in the past. And more than likely, that is what happened here. The violence escalated and it resulted in her death. So that was a deliberate move by them to strengthen the case of murder, right? And they end up getting the conviction of second degree murder. So job all done.

And unfortunately, you have a savvy defense attorney who comes in here and throw shit at the wall, right? Just like Scott Peterson and hope that something sticks. And unfortunately, for Harmony's family, that's what happened here, where now you have this person who's going to go through the trial again. And I have no problem saying that more than likely it's going to result in a guilty conviction again. but it's a waste of taxpayers money. I strongly believe in everyone having their fair day in court and they are innocent until proven guilty in said court. But I don't believe that because of this previous assault being combined with this

secondary assault that resulted in murder, that somehow tainted the jury. They just had, they had brains and they used common sense and realize that there were only two people who really could have been responsible for Harmony's murder. and they decided to go with the guy who had a history of beating her up and assaulting her. Yeah. Also, the guy who, yeah, who even before she was in his custody, there were issues with his treatment of her. Okay. So, and listen, here's my thing.

It's very clear to me that Adams' defense team phoned this in initially with the trial. They didn't call defense witnesses. He didn't even show up. Yeah, probably. If this is the same defense team, I have a problem with this because you, you, should have objected to the admittance of that prior assault during the trial if you had a problem with it and you didn't think that it was relevant or you thought it would, you know, bias the jurors unfairly.

Hey, Stephanie, maybe they thought about it and said, hey, listen, let's let it go through. Let's let it ride. And then it's our excuse if it doesn't. It's a strategic move. This is all a game. Yeah, but it's a strategic move that the taxpayers have to pay for. Yes. For some freaking scum of the earth to run around out here and just play games with everybody.

after what he did to his daughter. Well, hopefully he doesn't get out. I don't think he'll get out. He'll still be in prison on the other charges, I believe. I hope I'm right in saying that. And then he's going to go to trial again. And more than likely, he's going to be convicted again. I mean, here's what I would do.

Okay. Adam says Kayla did it. Kayla says Adam did it. Yeah. Throw them both away. Throw them both in prison. They both suck. Yeah.

Kayla's like, I was, I tried to stop him from hurting harm me. Complacency isn't in a excuse. But I was scared of him. No. throw them both in prison and then put the key in the bottom of the ocean and then they stay there. That's it. They stay there until they die. Okay.

We've solved the problem. We've solved the taxpayer money. You both suck. New Hampshire, we got this. Yes, we got you, New Hampshire. You're both scum of the earth people. Neither one of you deserves to be walking around. Kayla served 18 months in prison for lying to a grand jury about where she was when Harmony was last seen.

She sucks. Okay. He sucks. They found each other. and they sucked more. And now you guys can suck away from the general public in prison. That's all.

We don't need a new trial. We don't need to go through all these hoops. We don't need to worry about what a next jury can hear. Or if they think that a man who is capable of punching his child in the face previously will be capable of doing it again until she dies.

Right. We just put them both away. It's pretty common sensical that if you punch a child in the face, you run the risk of serious injury or death. And it's pretty evident that if you, You are willing to hit your small child once.

Yeah. You'll do it again. You shouldn't be amongst a society. And because you're a grown-ass man, you're capable of killing her easily. Completely agree. Goodbye. All right, yeah, so I'm officially pissed off. I definitely think my opinion, we should cover it in depth because maybe there's something we're missing here.

I'm saying that sarcastically. But I'm sure there's some, maybe one or two, Adam Montgomery defenders out there. So I'd love to hear from you guys. but overall, I think it would be good to do a deep dive on this case, break it all down, catch everyone up to speed so that when the trial does happen, we can all be angry together. Yeah, I agree. That's my vote. Let's do it.

I want to do it. So let us know. Yeah, let us know. And we know there's probably more details to this that we have to look into. Again, this just broke today a couple hours ago. So we didn't have a lot of time to do all the research. But I think if we do a deep dive, we'll get into this and everything else. the foundation of this case.

And I'm definitely voting for that. But if there is something else that we missed or something that needs to be addressed, whether we cover this case or not, we'll put it up on our social media. Yeah, I also understand we're filming this about a week before it comes out. Like six days before it comes out, because Derek's got to go out of town again.

He's jet satin again. And so we had to film this before he leaves. But if something else comes up, like he said, we'll put it up on the community page. We'll put it on our social. and I think we should do a deep dive because I'm pissed. I agree. You can go follow us at Crime Weekly Pod on Instagram.

I believe it's Twitter, Crime Weekly Podcast. It might be the same thing. Or you can go to Crime Weekly Podcast.com. Follow us there. We're constantly updating that. And if you're really inclined, just go follow us on Patreon. That's where we do our, we're always in there. We're in the comments.

We're in the chats. And we actually create different discussion boards, different group chats for specific cases. So if this is something we cover, we'll have a Harmony, Montgomery chat in there specifically for this case where people who are interested in talking more about it can go there and talk with people who are in the same mindset. So we appreciate you guys being here. We appreciate the love, support. We're definitely thinking about harmony and everybody connected to her, that community that now has to experience this again. And we're going to be following along. Once again, I understand, her remains are still not located.

No. And so maybe this is an opportunity to finally bring her home. These two disgusting scum of the earth people who both belong in a dark room for the rest of their lives have not, have turned on each other and have so much to say, but not where harmony is so that she can be returned to her mother and she can be given a burial and put to rest. Well, maybe now that her feet are on the fire, Kayla's going to be more willing to even disclose something that she didn't disclose before. Maybe. Kayla better. Kayla better open her mouth and say something at this point. I'm really hoping that if we're going to drag this case through the judicial process again, there's something positive that comes out of it.

And that would be bringing harmony home. Yes, I agree. If that happens, it's worth it. Yep, absolutely. We're going to be back later this week with Rachel Hansen Part 2. Until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon. Bye.