Seeking Life Sentence for Father Convicted of Killing Daughter: Prosecutors Cite History of Cruelty and Lack of Remorse

During Adam Montgomery’s sentencing hearing scheduled for Thursday, prosecutors are seeking a prison term of 56 years to life for Montgomery, who was convicted in February of second-degree murder in the 2019 death of his five-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery. Harmony went missing in 2021, and her remains have not yet been found, prompting a judge to declare her legally dead in March at her mother’s request. Prosecutors claimed that Montgomery murdered Harmony on December 7, 2019, and transported and consolidated her body over a period of three months before disposing of it on March 4, 2020. They further alleged that Montgomery attacked Harmony several times on December 7, 2019, after she had a bathroom accident, ultimately leading to her death. In the sentencing memo, prosecutors suggested that Montgomery’s “cruelty and depravity” warranted more than the minimum sentence, noting that he could have possibly spared Harmony some pain or saved her by getting her medical assistance following the attacks. Montgomery has also reportedly displayed a lack of remorse for killing his daughter, with one witness claiming that he admitted to hating Harmony to his core. In addition, prosecutors argued that Montgomery’s extensive criminal history, which includes threatening a teenager with a knife and shooting someone during a robbery, should be taken into account during sentencing. Additionally, authorities concluded that Harmony died in December 2019 in Manchester, and a report by New Hampshire’s Office of the Child Advocate detailed Harmony’s time moving between her mother’s care and foster care before being awarded permanent custody to Montgomery in 2019. Montgomery’s wife, Kayla Montgomery, has already pleaded guilty to lying to a grand jury about Harmony’s whereabouts around the time of her disappearance.