A judge has sentenced Adam Montgomery to prison for 56 years to life, noting that he took a human life “in the most callous and heartless of ways.”
In Feb., a New Hampshire jury found Adam guilty of all charges in the death of his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery, including second-degree murder. Judge Amy Messer sentenced Adam to 45 years to life for the murder, to be served consecutively with each of the other charges.
Using a timeline put together by investigators, prosecutors argued Harmony was murdered in Dec. 2019, though she wasn’t reported missing for nearly two years. Her mother, Crystal Sorey, alerted police to Harmony’s disappearance on Nov. 18, 2021, after she was unable to reach her for months.
Editor’s note: The following story contains graphic descriptions.
Prosecutors said that Adam beat Harmony to death on Dec. 7, 2019, while the two were living in a car with Adam’s wife, Kayla, and the couple’s other children. Kayla told police that Adam was angry because Harmony would frequently have accidents in the car and that he would frequently hit her in the head with a closed fist.
Investigators said that over the next several months, Adam and Kayla moved Harmony’s body from the car, to banks of snow, to a cooler, to a ceiling vent and a walk-in freezer as they continued to conceal her death. Adam also tried to help decomposition with lime.
Investigators said that in the spring of 2020, Adam rented a U-Haul and took the bag with Harmony’s remains to dispose of them. Her body was never found.
At trial, Adam’s public defender admitted his client helped cover up Harmony’s death, but pointed the finger at Kayla for murder.
At his sentencing hearing, prosecutors said that if Adam revealed the location of Harmony’s remains which led to their recovery within seven days, they would recommend a shorter sentence. Adam’s attorneys called the offer a “stunt” and accused prosecutors of seeking a reaction only to call him “heartless, immoral and without remorse” when he acted “appropriate, with his counsel’s recommendation.”
Sorey spoke directly to Adam at his sentencing, saying that he killed their daughter because “she wasn’t a coward like you.” “I wish you nothing but pain and misery for the rest of your pathetic life,” Sorey said. “You’re just plain evil.”
Adam is currently serving a decades-long prison sentence in a weapons theft case. Judge Messer said that the sentences handed down for Harmony’s murder would serve consecutive to that sentence. Addressing him at sentencing, Judge Messer said, “You treated [Harmony’s] body like it was trash, worse than trash, did unimaginable things to her body.”
Although he waived his right to appear during his murder trial, the judge ruled he had to appear in person at sentencing.
This story was originally published by Lauren Silver, Ivy Brown and John Cowley IV at CourtTV.com.
