Law&Crime Sidebar - 5-Year-Old Girl's Dad Convicted of Her Gruesome Murder: Harmony Montgomery — The Full Story

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

Adam Montgomery was accused of killing his own daughter, 5-year-old Harmony, then hiding her death for years. Montgomery refused to attend his New Hampshire trial in person, but the trial moved forward anyway. From chilling admissions and forensics to a potential alternative suspect, Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber has the full trial recap.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lcsidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Did he call 911 at any point? No. Did you? And when you saw him put her in that duffel bag, did you attempt to get away to run? No. Why not? They had the two other kids and I was scared. Scared of. Something would happen to me or Adam and the kids. Adam Montgomery, man accused of murdering his five-year-old daughter Harmony goes on trial.

From chilling admissions to forensics to a potential alternative suspect, we have the full trial recap for you. for you. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. Jesse Weber. On the Law and Crime Network, we were covering quite trial out of New Hampshire. And I will tell you it's a difficult one. Very difficult one to say the least. It is the case of

Adam Montgomery, the father accused of murdering his five-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery, back in December of 2019, even though she wasn't declared missing until 2021. He was charged with second-degree murder, second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, abuse of a corpse, witness tampering. Now, here's the thing. What makes this all the more chilling is that Harmony's body, to this day, has never been found,

which, as you know, can make a prosecutor's job very difficult. You don't have the body to analyze to determine the exact cause of death or time of death and so forth. That's important for the prosecution. Now, we are going to do a full trial recap for you right now, including what evidence the prosecution had against Montgomery and what the defense was that was presented in this case. But what makes this case legally interesting is what Montgomery chose to do. You see, while he pled not guilty to the murder charge, he actually admitted to falsifying

evidence and abuse of the corpse. So in other words, as you'll see, he admits he helped dispose of Harmony's remains. but says he is not a killer. Okay, let's start off with opening statements. And I say it all the time. The opening statements are each side's attempt to lay out a roadmap, a guide of where the case is going to go. So let's start this off with prosecutor Christopher Knowles.

Where is Harmony? When people across this nation from Florida, all the way up to Alaska, and everywhere in between, we're looking for Harmony, there's one person who is not one person the one person who should have been looking for harmony was not her biological father that defendant that you saw two days ago he wasn't looking for her and in fact he was hoping that she wouldn't be found his concern was not with finding this

innocent five-year-old girl his concern was that she would be found on December 7th 2019 the defendant beat Harmony to death because she had a bathroom accident, something she had no control over. She had peed her pants, and he murdered her in a series of attacks of brutal strikes that began that morning in the car that she was living out of and ended in the Burger King parking lot that you all saw yesterday on the view. He carried her body with him for months. For months, he carried her body, and he discarded her with zero appreciation for the life that he'd taken, just a fear of being caught. And in the months that followed, he beat, he injured, he terrorized, the only witness to his crime, the only person that could come in here and tell you what he did.

She was his loose end, Kayla Montgomery, his wife. He conditioned Kayla through force. and through threats with the purpose of making sure that she would never come in here and tell you what she'd seen, what he did. Just a brutal, brutal story

laid out by the prosecution, that he beat his own five-year-old daughter to death because she had an accident and that he moved to remains from place to place and tried to discard the body in different ways. This is what we're dealing with. I say it all the time, but this is what we're dealing with,

which we're going to get into that part, too. And by the way, you also heard about Kayla Montgomery. So this is an eyewitness to the murder, and he had to keep her quiet. And speaking of Kayla Montgomery, as you will hear from the defense, that is who they pin the blame on when it comes to Harmony. So is Caleb Montgomery perhaps responsible for Harmony's death? Here's Montgomery's defense attorney, James Brooks. Adam Montgomery did not kill Harmony.

Adam Montgomery did not beat Harmony in the head as he approached the Burger King drive-thru. Adam Montgomery did not cause Harmony's death. Kayla Montgomery was the last person to see Harmony alive and know how Harmony died. But she didn't come clean with Adam. She didn't come clean with the police. And she will not come clean with you. She is still lying about the cause of Harmony's death. Even though Kayla now has her deal with the state, she continues to lie.

The only reason Kayla has to lie now is to protect herself. The only reason she has to lie and point the finger at Adam is because the truth points the finger at her. The only reason Kayla has to lie to make Harmony's death so brutal and faithful. foul by Adam is to hide that Adam was protecting Kayla, his wife, and the mother of his kids. Now look, I'm not pretending that Adam isn't innocent here. Adam is not an innocent here. He and Kayla covered up Harmony's death. He's not an innocent here. He and Kayla moved Harmony's body from place to place to keep it hidden. What defense attorney Brooks is saying is that Adam is basically the fall guy, right?

That he's being blamed for what his estranged wife did and said. But look, he is admitting to participating in the cover-up. And that can be an effective strategy at trial, by the way. You tell the jury, listen, it's not as if I'm saying I'm not guilty to everything. I'm admitting to covering up the death of my own daughter. If I'm admitting that, doesn't that show how credible I am when I tell you I am not the one who killed her? Now, as you'll see, the evidence of the cover-up is pretty blatant. so maybe he didn't really have a choice but to admit this so keep that in mind but also you should

keep in mind what evidence do we have that he was the one who actually killed harmony montgomery we will talk about them and by the way Kayla montgomery she pled guilty to perjury for lying about where she was she's serving an 18-month prison sentence so is she credible is she just saying what she has to say to help prosecutors we're going to get into that too but after the opening statements, we had witness testimony. And let me just start off with Crystal Sory. This is Harmony's biological mother. She lost custody of Harmony. She had drug addiction issues. But she testified that the last time she saw her daughter Harmony was April of 2019 and that she was trying desperately to reach out to Adam and Kayla to see Harmony.

Did you continue these efforts you talked about before trying to get in touch with Adam? Yes. And what about September of 2019, were you trying to get in touch with Adam then? Yes. What about October and November of 2019? Were you trying to get in touch with Adam then? Yes. Christmas of 2019.

Yes. And you're in touch with him then? Yes. Were any of those successful? No. Did you see or hear from Harmony at all during that time period? No. What about the following year in the year 2020?

Did you try to get a hold of Adam? at Harmony. Yes, I had made a new Facebook hoping because he had blocked me and so did Kayla. I was hoping to get through to him that way. So heartbreak. You hear her getting particularly emotional

when talking about Christmas 2019 as that was around the time the prosecutors say Adam Montgomery murdered Harmony. But now let's actually get to the state's key witness, Kayla. Kayla Montgomery, the defendant's estranged wife, Harmony's stepmother,

eyewitness to the murder, and it was interesting because the prosecution got out in front of a very bad fact about Kayla before the defense could even jump on it, that she is in prison. Kayla, why are you currently incarcerated? For perjury, for lying to the jury about the whereabouts of where I was and where Harmony was. And when you say lying to the jury, was that the grand jury? Yes. Did you also lie to the police? Yes. Why did you do that?

Because I was scared and I was told by Adam to stick with that story that I got dropped off at work at Dunkin' Donuts where I no longer worked at that time. and to say that he was bringing harmony to meet her mother, Crystal, and that he dropped her off with her. And then when he came and picked me up from work, which I was not working there at the time, he didn't have her in the car, which that was a lie. That theme that she lied, that she covered up for Adam Montgomery, because she was afraid of him, that is going to be very big moving forward in this case.

In fact, a Roseanne Smith to testify in this trial, she drove Adam and his family to methadone clinic appointments, and she observed Kayla with a badly bruised black eye that began to swell. She hadn't noticed that before. Was Kayla being abused by Adam? Did she have a reasonable fear for her life if she didn't help him? That's what the jury had to consider. But going back to the lies that Kayla Montgomery told the grand jury, If that's not what happened to Harmony, what did?

And Kayla, I want you to walk the jurors through in as much detail as you can. What happened on your route from Habit Opco to that Burger King? Adam was getting really angry from Harmony, peeing in the car, and he repetitively kept punching her. um on the way to burger king and there were a couple red lights and when we were at red lights he would like go over the driver's seat like in between the passenger seat and he was just punching her repetitively in the head you said she was making a weird noise yes you describe it It was like, I can't even describe it.

It was like a moaning kind of noise. But crying, it was just weird. I can't explain it. Did you try to help Harmony while he was striking her? Yes. Tell the jurors what you did to help, to try to help. I put my arm up and said to stop but he looks at me and he gave me this look that was like evil i don't is his crazy

eyes i didn't like it and i didn't i couldn't stop her stop him from hitting her because he the look that he gave me was scary i was scared what were you feeling when he looked at you like that like he was either going to hit me or just I don't know it was weird shortly after that did he say anything to you when he stopped he said he thinks that he really hurt her when you say harmony had passed away when did you realize that harmony had passed away when Adam was trying to wake her up and she didn't she didn't she didn't reply or anything

he took the duffel bag that was in the trunk and and and put her in the duffel bag. Yeah, that is tough to listen to. And Kayla,

she testified that she witnessed the defendant physically abused harmony in the past as well. But it was after this specific incident, she says, this is what killed this little girl. It's chilling. It's chilling. And as to why, she never did anything. Did he call 911 at any point?

No. Did you? No. And when you saw him put her in that duffel bag, did you attempt to get a way to run? No. Why not?

They had the two other kids, and I was scared. Scared of. Something would happen to me or Adam and the kids. And that leads me to what she claims Adam did to Harmony. So first, she said he put her body in a snowbank, but then over time, as As As, as As, Adam and Kayla and their two young children live from place to place, Harmony's remains would be moved as well. For instance, when they stayed at a hotel, she claims Adam put his own daughter's body in the fridge.

When they were living in a car, she claims Adam put Harmony in the trunk, then moved it to a dumpster. And at one point, they find themselves at a family shelter, and he allegedly put Harmony in the ceiling, in the vent. Kayla even testified that she witnessed Adam trying to dethaw Harmony's body in a bathtub and use Lyme, just really, really graphic, disturbing, disturbing stuff here. By the way, what are the stories we cover make clear that it is so important to know who you are surrounding yourself with, right?

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So right now, you can get 50% off of confidential background reports. you just go to www. truthfinder.com slash lc-sidebar. Hope you check it out. It is alleged that Adam used a U-Haul van to ultimately dispose of Harmony's remains. As you can see, Kayla is laying out

some incredibly incriminating testimony against the defendant. And when she faced cross-examination from Montgomery's attorney, she was put to the test. Let's see how that went. You said the last time you saw Harmony, she was happy.

Yes. And you had no problem with that lie to the grand jury, right? Right. You told them that your car had died and you slept in the car of your friend Anthony Baderro for a weekend. Yes. And it was sometime after that that you went to your mom's. Yes. And you told them that Baderos saw harmony every day while living at the colonial.

for that couple of weeks, right? Yes. And that was a slip-up, right? I don't remember. You said that Badero saw Harmony probably every day, but now you're saying it's probably every couple of days? Yes. And after you said that to the prosecutor,

do you remember actually addressing the fact that you said that you hadn't seen Harmony after November 3? 30th? No. You said that the state asked you about Adam being pure evil, right? Yes. And that's what you said you saw in Adam at the time that you say that he was beating harmony. Yes. And you're saying that a child was beaten to death beside you. looking like pure evil and you continued on with your children and your life with adam yeah but it wasn't okay okay and you did nothing about harmony's death no i asked him to stop and he didn't okay i'm talking about after harmony was died you continued on with your life right yeah but it wasn't okay it was

abusive okay and um you don't like that abusive right right and you would not approve of abusive behavior well i was taking it okay when i showed enough it took a while for me to just leave him it's really hard so a lot of questions about her credibility and her motivations i mean defense counsel even brought up these conflicts that Kayla had had with Adam, including that she was jealous. And look, not ideal. The prosecution star witness is someone who admitted to lying to another jury, the grand jury in this case. But prosecutors would say, look, you don't pick and choose your witnesses. Some are not perfect. However, there are important questions of whether she is admitting the truth now or covering up what she did. That's the defense's goal,

raising reasonable doubt. Now, more specifically, how can we be sure? of what Kayla Montgomery testified to that Adam is the killer and tried to dispose of Harmony's body. How do we know that's true? Well, we heard other evidence. We heard from Detective Max Rehill from the Manchester Police Department. We were looking for line purchases. Why were you looking for line purchases? Due to a statement made by Caleb Montgomery.

You tell us what that is? Yes, so this is the receipt from a transaction. at Home Depot on March Ave. Does that receipt tell you the amounts? Yes. Can you just put the amount to the jurors? Yes. It was $396.35.

And it says cash there. Yes. What's your understanding of what that means? So the transaction was paid with cash, $400 in cash. What's your understanding of the size of the line bag that was purchased? It was a 40-pound line bag. 40 pounds? Yes.

And what additional items were purchased? during that transaction? So there was a Milwaukee M18 fuel grinder, which is also known as an angle grinder, size 4 and a half blade. There was also a Diablo, four and a half blade purchase and an M18 Milwaukee battery.

So the idea here, two months after Adam Montgomery kills his daughter, it looks like he and Kayla are purchasing these supplies to get rid of her body. That helps to back up Kayla Montgomery's story, right? Well, then we heard from the maintenance worker for a building where Adam Kaler and their kids were staying, and he was called to their apartment about an issue with the bathtub. Remember, Kayla testified that Adam Montgomery had tried to dismember harmony in that bathtub using lime and tools.

What kind of work did you do at that time? Oh, the guy called about his tub not draining. I knocked on his door. I met him in the kitchen. Went around to the bathroom. noticed that the overflow plate where the drain lever is was missing a screw turned sideways and he said the drain did not drain where is adam montgomery right outside the bathroom door and are you guys talking at all during that time uh not really he's doing more pacing than talking

so more pacing yeah it was just kind of waiting for us to finish I would say so. Now, we also heard about other forensic evidence in this case. We heard from Martin Olowitz. This is a criminologist with the state police forensic laboratory, and he testified about IDing Adam Montgomery's fingerprints on the vent in the ceiling where Adam was accused of storing Harmony's body for a period of time. The matches included multiple fingers and a prompt of the defendant.

And this was backed up by the testimony of Alan Akroyd eye sales, a senior DNA analyst with DNA Labs International who testified that Harmony's DNA matched the material found on the ceiling tiles. So important evidence, but here's an example of how the defense pushed back on that when they questioned this DNA analyst. So you can't conclusively say that Harmony Montgomery

is the source of the DNA on the sheetrock or the rails, but the probability is very, very high. That's fair to say. So if the sheetrock and the metal rails came together and the DNA that was on both of them was from the same source, can we conclude that there was only one source on the sheet rock? Well, no, because I can't speak for how people in the past might have touched these various items or who made what kind of contact or how DNA came to be on an item. I simply can't speak to the activity that led to DNA ending up on an item of evidence. So not 100% definitive, not clear how DNA ends up somewhere, but either way, remember, if you take the defense's argument that Adam Montgomery didn't kill Harmony but disposed of her body,

then it wouldn't be surprising that her DNA or his fingerprints would be on these places, right? Does it show that he committed the killing? What does show that he committed to killing? Let's talk a little bit about a major, major piece of testimony in this case, that of Travis Beach. So prosecutors argue that Beach is one of these several people that helped Adam Montgomery rent the U-Haul van that I mentioned earlier, the van that prosecutors say Montgomery used to ultimately dispose of the remains of his daughter, remains that were never found, this in March of 2020. In fact, poll records presented by the prosecution, show the U-Haul van driving over the Tobin

bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, going both north and south on March 4th. But back to Mr. Beach, listen to this alleged statement made by the defendant, a real bombshell. Can you tell the jurors where you were when you gave him the keys and what specifically he told you? We, myself and Brittany Bardard gave the keys to add. Adam Montgomery, which he was staying at the O'Connor Lodge on the first floor. After that, Adam Montgomery and myself went outside to smoke a cigarette.

He was pacing back and forth. He said he effed up, and I asked him what he meant, and all he could say in repeat was he effed up. And I'm not sure. And he said he repeated that. Yes, sir. How many times did you repeat? Four or five times. When you say after, did he actually say the word?

Yes, sir. Did you ask him to clarify? I did. And he did not. Did he say anything when you asked him to clarify? All he kept saying was I f***ed up. Now keep in mind as you listen to that statement, that Beach said that he was doing drugs with Adam

before this statement was made. They were doing cocaine more specifically. But if the jury accepts that Montgomery said that definitely helps the prosecution's narrative that he killed Harmony. On the other side, maybe he's saying, look, he effed up because he's helping dispose of a body, but he didn't kill her. But that wouldn't be the only questionable comment made by Adam Montgomery. No, Tara Hilbert, the manager of that apartment property where Adam and his family were living,

she testified. And listen to this odd exchange that she allegedly had with the defense. Did he ever say anything to you about having a daughter by the name of Harmony? He did. What did he say about Harmony? Just that he had a daughter named Harmony and that he hadn't seen her in a couple of years because her mother took her back to Massachusetts. That's what he told you?

Yes. And when would this have been that you had this conversation with him? What year? 2020. 2020? Weird stuff. defense suggested in their cross-examination of Hilbert that, at least in my view, that she has some sort of bias because she was friends with Kayla Montgomery. Again, the defense saying to the jury, you can't believe Kayla, who said that Adam is the killer.

Now, one more frightening alleged admission from the defendant, though, we have to talk about. And this comes from his friend, Rebecca Mains. At the time in 2021, did you ever talk with Adam Montgomery about a daughter named Harmony? I did. Where did he say she was living in 2021 when you talked with him? He told me that he dropped her off to her mother in 2019 at a rest area. What did he say about how often he was seeing her back in 2021? He said her mother would not allow him to see her and that he had been trying for some time.

What did he say about why he decided to send Harmony back to her mother? Because she continually... Do you ever tell you about a physical incident between himself and Harmony? He did. He was in the bathroom and he had walked out to find Harmony with her hands over the baby's mouth and nose and that the baby was not breathing and turning blue, and he said he saw red, and he just backhanded her. Finally, with regards to what the defendant stated to you about Harmony,

what if anything did he ever say, or I'm sorry, who, if anyone, did he ever say Harmony reminded him of? Her mother. Her mother? Her mother. And did he tell you how that made him feel? He said he hated her. Right to his core.

So first, obviously this prior alleged abuse of Harmony is consistent with what we heard from other testimony and the fact that he brought up this idea of her having accidents in her pants, which the prosecution says is what drove him over the edge to kill Harmony. This is very important testimony. And then to hear that he hated the mother, the jury believes that definitely helps create a further understanding of why he had so much anger towards his daughter. But after the prosecution rested their case, the defense moved to dismiss the case. They have to show that viewing the evidence in light most favorable to the prosecution,

it is insufficient to warrant a conviction. This is a motion to dismiss. They have to prove that no rational jury or judge would find proof beyond a reasonable doubt. This is very pro forma. Almost in every case that we've covered, defense attorneys try to get the case thrown out after the prosecution rests. But here, like in many cases, it was denied. There is enough of an issue of fact for the jury to consider.

Now, for the defense, they actually chose not to call any witnesses during the trial. So then ultimately, we moved to the closing arguments, the last attempt by each side to summarize the case and make their final points. Here is part of the defense's closing argument. Wake up, baby girl. Baby girl, wake up. Those were the words that Kayla used to discuss. describe how Adam approached his child when he discovered that she was dead.

Kayla used words that were the truth sometimes to fill in her lies. Those words were from a real memory of how Adam was speaking. Adam is no innocent shortly after he discovered that his baby girl would not wake up again. He began a series of decisions, terrible and criminal decisions. He made them with a very misguided belief that he had to make them to keep his family from being ripped apart. And he made those decisions with the input and influence of his wife, Kayla. He did make those choices and you will hold him accountable for those choices. But he did not do this to hide that he killed Harmony because he did not kill Harmony.

So Kayla decided to lie about Harmony's death, to accuse Adam of something that he did not do to get herself out of her own problems. And what better way than to pick an accusation that had already been made? was already arrested and in jail for an allegation of striking harmony, a tale that he had struck her and given her black eyes. That became the groundwork for Kayla's own lies. She had to lie because the truth would point to her. But I want you to consider which is more likely that a mother of her own children and a caretaker by all accounts, a loving and joyful girl, She is taking care of, would stand by and protect a man who brutally beat time and time again

in front of her and her own children, that beautiful child. Or would a father who failed in his responsibility to care for that beautiful child, would he stand by his wife because he did not know how Harmony died? So he was covering up for his wife. She is the liar. She is accusing him to get out of her own legal issue. Okay. Here is the prosecution's response in their closing argument. I f***ed up again and again and again. I f*** up. I f*** up. That's what the defendant,

his language that he used when he told Travis Beach at the night he got the U-Haul, the night that he disappeared, Harmony's body to whatever place it is now, where he knows it is right now to this day, his words I f***ed up.

Not she, not we, not Kayla, I, I fucked up. You heard from Kayla, two days from Kayla and all of the other witnesses that corroborate

her, how he beat Harmony, this 35-pound child, and you heard from all those witnesses, especially Kayla, about why he beat Harmony to death, when he beat Harmony, and how he beat Harmony, and you vetted what she had to say, corroborated in ways that we'll explore that the witness never could have possibly known there was other evidence out there that supported them and then beat and manipulated and controlled Kayla afterwards to make sure that she stuck to the story so he would not be held accountable and the evidence of his crimes would not be found so when he says that you can find him guilty of these understand that these two are but a part of the whole of his criminality of how he murdered harmony as well

he's a murderer. That's getting rid of evidence. That's what murderers do. They silence witnesses into staying silent or even perjuring themselves. I don't mind abusing the body so that the evidence of how their victim was murdered can never

be found or used against them. They clean bathrooms with ammonia after they get rid of the evidence like this defendant did. They clean out the plumbing lines like this defendant wanted to do. They desecrate and hide the dead so that the body cannot tell the story of how they died to the living.

That's what murderers do. That's what the defendant did. Kayla, not a perfect witness, but she's telling the truth. He may be acknowledging a role in covering up Harmony's death, but that shows that he is the murderer. Look at all the other corroborating evidence. Well, after about six hours, of deliberations over two days. Here is the jury's verdict.

As to charge ID 202-7112C, charging the defendant Adam Montgomery with a crime of second-degree murder, do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty? Guilty. So, yes, he was found guilty of murder and all of the other charges as well. A little side note here, Montgomery chose

to not actually be in the courtroom before the trial, so we didn't get his reaction there. He was already serving a 30-year president, and sentence on an unrelated gun conviction, by the way. But here for murder and other charges, he will be sentenced on May 9th and faces 35 years to life in prison. And it is our understanding that victim impact statements

will be allowed in court as well, which is considering the death of this five-year-old girl will probably be very difficult, very emotional, but very important to hear from the less. All right, everybody, that is all we have for you here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us, as always. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.