Editor’s note: Some of the details described in the story below may be disturbing for readers. The trial will resume Friday.
Opening statements, sometimes graphic, were delivered Thursday in the case of the New Hampshire father accused of killing his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery.
Both the prosecution and the defense admit that the girl's father, Adam Montgomery, kept her decomposing body for months after she died, but disagree on who actually caused it.
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Prosecutor Christopher Knowles said that Adam Montgomery beat his daughter Harmony to death on Dec. 7, 2019 because she peed her pants in the car they were living in, compressed her body into a duffel bag and disposed of it four months later. Her body has never been found, despite a massive search, and Adam Montgomery, prosecutors said, was the only person who wasn't looking.
"He is the only person in this world who knows where Harmony is, who knows where Harmony is, and he was hoping that she would never be found," Knowles said. "The one person, the one and only person who murdered Harmony, who butchered her body, and who disposed of her like yesterday's trash."
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The man "went to great lengths to cover up his crime," including beating and conditioning his now-estranged wife Kayla Montgomery so she wouldn't speak out about what she witnessed, Knowles said.
Montgomery's defense attorneys admitted he is guilty of two lesser charges, urging the jury to find him guilty of abuse of a corpse and falsifying evidence. But they denied he is guilty of second-degree murder, saying that only Kayla Montgomery knew how the girl died.
"Adam Montgomery did not cause Harmony Montgomery's death," lawyer James Brooks said, adding, "she didn't come clean with Adam, she didn't come clean with the police and she won't come clean with you."
They claimed that she gave a new story after being caught for lying, and that her story changed.
"The truth points the finger at her," Brooks said.
Following opening statements, the judge said, the jury began to hear from witnesses, including Harmony's biological mother, foster mother and great-uncle.
Harmony's mother, Crystal Sorey, described the lengths she went to to get in touch with Harmony after getting to see her four times in total once Adam Montgomery got custody of her in 2019.
"I was calling [the Division for Children, Youth and Families], I was telling my therapist, talking to anybody that I knew either was a mandated reporter or had some type of leverage," she said.
Kevin Montgomery, Harmony's great-uncle, spoke at length about a bad black eye he once found Harmony with, which Adam Montgomery allegedly proudly gave the 4-year-old, whom he'd left in charge of her baby half-brother. She'd been covering the baby's mouth as he cried, according to the story Kevin Montgomery was told.
"I bashed her around the f****** house," Kevin Montgomery recalled Adam saying, in a manner he would describe as "like a cocky son of a b****."
Adam Montgomery wasn't in court for the opening statements, opting to stay away for the second day in a row.
On Wednesday, he spoke to the judge over a video call with a sudden admission that postponed the opening statements to Thursday, an unusual delay.
"Do you wish for them to acknowledge your guilt, on both of those charges, falsifying physical evidence and abuse of corpse?" Judge Amy Messer asked Montgomery through a video call.
"Yes," he answered.
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Harmony was 5 years old when she disappeared in 2019 and is presumed dead. Her father, Adam Montgomery, has been charged with five felony counts in the case: second-degree murder, second-degree assault, witness tampering, falsifying evidence and abuse of corpse. The last two were at center of the conversation as the trial started on Wednesday.
Montgomery was in court Tuesday, but missed the final selection of his jury late Wednesday morning: 12 jurors, and five alternates. The details of the case are difficult, and the trial is expected the last several weeks. NBC10 Boston spoke with one woman who was dismissed because she’ll be out of the country.
"It's a hard case. I can't even imagine and I think probably going into. It is nervous about it but I don't think anybody can anticipate what’s going to be seen and her there," Bridgette McCarthy said.
The trial was slated to begin with opening statements Wednesday, but those statements were pushed back until Thursday morning. Instead, jurors attended a view, which involves taking them to see key locations that will be discussed during testimony.
The 43-year-old Montgomery is accused of punching Harmony to death in 2019 while in a car with his estranged wife Kayla and their two boys. He’s then accused of moving the young girl’s body from place to place after she died. During the view, jurors were shown the locations around Manchester where the events allegedly unfolded - places like a Burger King on Daniel Webster Highway and an apartment where they lived on Union Street.
"It’s going to be the beginning of a journey will likely never forget. It’s also the last journey that Harmony Montgomery took while she was alive," Benjamin Agati, New Hampshire senior assistant attorney general, said while addressing the jury.
The defense disputed that statement, but did not disagree that the locations were important to the case.
Those include a methadone clinic where Harmony's father Adam Montgomery and his estraged wife Kayla Montgomery received treatment and the alleged location where he first struck Harmony in his car; a Burger King on Daniel Webster Highway where Adam Montgomery allegedly continued to strike his daughter along the drive from the clinic; the Colonial Village Apartments, where the family was living out of their car; the intersection of Elm and Webster, where the car died and Adam Montgomery allegedly realized Harmony was dead; an apartment on Union Street where the family lived and Harmony's body was allegedly stored; the location that once housed a pizza shop called Portland Pie Company, where Adam Montgomery once worked and where the prosecution alleges he stored his daughter's body in a freezer.
The details of the Harmony Montgomery murder case
Adam Montgomery was charged with Harmony's murder in October of 2022 — after years of speculation. A key prosecution witness is expected to be his estranged wife Kayla Montgomery, who is serving an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to perjury charges. She agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Adam Montgomery punched Harmony to death in 2019 while in a car with Kayla and their two boys.
Montgomery denied the accusations back when he was being tried for an unrelated weapons case last year, which he was found guilty and sentenced to at least 30 years in prison.
"I did not kill my daughter Harmony and I look forward to my upcoming trial to refute those offensive claims," he said at that time.
"The defendant, while having the benefit of the government, having the burden of proof, doesn’t present a sympathetic case," said legal analyst Michael Coyne.
Harmony's case prompted vigils in Manchester and generated national headlines. It is viewed as a tragic failure of the child protection systems in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, both states where the family was known to the system, and rallied cries to prioritize the well-being of children over parents in custody matters.
Harmony was moved between the homes of her mother and her foster parent's multiple times before Montgomery received custody in 2019 and moved to New Hampshire.
