This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Adam Montgomery, the father sentenced to more than 50 years in prison for killing his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery, is asking the New Hampshire Supreme Court to overturn his murder conviction, alleging his trial was unfair.
Montgomery was convicted last year of beating his daughter to death and hiding her body. Police believe he killed Harmony while they were living in a car in Manchester in 2019, nearly two years before she was reported missing. Her body has never been found.
Montgomery’s attorney, Pamela Pheland, said the lower court erred when it allowed the jury to view “prior bad act” evidence of him having assaulted and neglected Harmony before her death. While the court found this evidence relevant to the murder, Pheland argued it was not connected closely enough and instead created unfair prejudice against Montgomery.
Justice Melissa Countway challenged that claim, asking whether the evidence from the weeks and months leading up to the murder could’ve been an indicator of Montgomery’s “extreme indifference” to Harmony’s life.
Pheland responded: “I believe the [homicide] charge itself shows extreme indifference.”
She argued prosecutors may have used the “prior bad act” evidence connected to an earlier assault charge to fill a “gap” in their case. Similarly, the appeal also takes issue with the judge’s decision to combine the earlier assault charge with the homicide charge into one trial.
Sam Gonyea, an assistant attorney general, told justices that the “overwhelming strength” of the state’s case canceled out any risk of prejudice from that evidence. The jury had a right to hear the context of the weeks and months leading up to Harmony’s death, he said.
“This murder did not happen in a vacuum,” Gonyea said. “The whole story is not told by simply recounting the events of Dec. 7, 2019.”
Attorneys also battled over the testimony of Kayla Montgomery, Harmony’s stepmother; Pheland argued that the state relied too heavily on her as a witness.
Kayla pleaded guilty to lying to the grand jury about the last time Harmony was seen. Gonyea said much of Kayla’s testimony was corroborated by other evidence.
The Supreme Court is now weighing Montgomery’s appeal. If the justices overturn Montgomery’s murder conviction, he remains convicted of felony weapons charges and other crimes and will remain incarcerated for years to come.
A judge earlier this week dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit from Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, against Montgomery, citing a missed deadline from Sorey’s attorney. The lawyer said the dismissal resulted from a misunderstanding, which they plan to clear it up in order to proceed with the case.
New Hampshire reached a $2.25 million settlement earlier this year in a separate wrongful death lawsuit from Sorey that accused the state’s child protection agencies of negligence and failing to protect Harmony in the months leading up to her death.
