The New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed Adam Montgomery’s second-degree murder conviction in the death of his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony, citing procedural errors tied to keeping a July 2019 assault charge and a December 2019 murder charge in the same trial
When Adam Montgomery walked into court years after his 5-year-old daughter. Harmony. was killed. the central question was whether jurors could fairly separate what happened in July 2019 from what prosecutors said happened in December 2019. On Thursday, the New Hampshire Supreme Court said they could not.
In a 15-page ruling, the justices overturned Montgomery’s murder conviction, reversing only the second-degree murder charge. They affirmed his other convictions: second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering, and abuse of a corpse.
The court’s decision turned on procedural errors in how the case was tried—specifically, the trial court’s refusal to sever the murder charge from the assault charge. Montgomery had argued that keeping the two counts together jeopardized his right to a fair trial.
The July assault count stemmed from allegations that Montgomery gave Harmony a black eye in July 2019. The murder count was based on allegations that Montgomery beat his daughter to death in December 2019.
The Supreme Court said the two allegations were not treated with the separation needed to protect the jury process. “Keeping those two charges together in one case jeopardized Montgomery’s right to a fair trial,” the justices wrote. They concluded that the jury faced a significant risk of relying on evidence from the July assault to decide the December murder charge.
At the time of the July assault, Montgomery was living at his grandmother’s home in Manchester with Harmony, his wife Kayla, his uncle, and the two biological children he had with Kayla. Harmony’s mother and Montgomery were estranged.
After Montgomery’s uncle returned from a trip, he found Harmony with a black eye. When asked about it, Montgomery allegedly told his uncle, “She didn’t do anything. I bashed her around the f**king house.”
During trial, Montgomery’s uncle testified that Montgomery put Harmony in charge of watching her baby brother while Montgomery used the bathroom. When Montgomery returned, the uncle said, he found Harmony with her hands over the baby’s mouth, making the infant’s lips blue.
Prosecutors said the fatal beating occurred on Dec. 7, 2019—about a week after the family was evicted from the Manchester home. At that point, the family was living in their car. The court’s description of the case said Harmony had been toilet trained. but began having accidents after the family moved into the car. and Montgomery responded by hitting her repeatedly.
Prosecutors said Harmony had two accidents on the day she died. and that Montgomery repeatedly punched her in the head after both. On their way to a Burger King after leaving a methadone clinic. prosecutors said Montgomery continued to hit his daughter as she cried and made a “strange. moaning-like noise.”.
With his final punch, the statement of facts says Montgomery told himself in the moment that he had “felt something” and that he “thought he really hurt her this time,” according to the statement of facts.
Later that day, the family’s car broke down in the middle of traffic. Prosecutors said Montgomery realized his daughter was dead and placed her body in a duffel bag. They said he hid her body in various locations for the next three months before disposing of it.
Montgomery argued that the state’s case for the July assault was strong. but that the December murder case was substantially weaker because it relied entirely on Kayla’s testimony. which the defense described as having “significant credibility deficits.” The Supreme Court agreed that the evidentiary weight differed.
“As compared to the evidence of multiple disinterested witnesses substantiating the July assault. the evidence of the December 7. 2019 fatal attack is substantially weaker. ” the justices wrote. They said that disparity created a significant risk that the jury would connect the two incidents in the way Montgomery’s defense sought to prevent.
“We therefore conclude that this disparity created a significant risk that the jury would rely on the strength of the evidence that the defendant struck the victim in anger in July to conclude that, as Kayla testified, he similarly — and fatally — struck the victim in December,” the justices added.
New Hampshire Supreme Court Adam Montgomery Harmony Montgomery second-degree murder second-degree assault witness tampering falsifying physical evidence abuse of a corpse sever charges Manchester methadone clinic
So they just let him off? That seems messed up.
I’m confused. They reversed the murder conviction but he still has other convictions? Like how does that even work, did they just swap charges or what?
The article says it was because of procedure/jury separation, not that he’s innocent, right. But honestly it still feels like they’re undermining accountability for beating a kid. I don’t care about the technicalities when it’s a 5-year-old.
This is the part where I think courts are too focused on ‘severing’ charges. Like if the guy did it in July then obviously it connects to December… unless they’re saying the jury got the dates wrong? Also they mention falsifying physical evidence and witness tampering so it’s not like he was squeaky clean. Feels like NH is playing games with timelines.