by Adam Montgomery has been sentenced to 45 years for the gruesome murder of his five-year-old daughter Harmony after he refused to accept a reduced sentence in exchange for finally revealing what he did with her remains.
A judge said Wednesday that Montgomery’s “gross disregard for human life” was evident not only in his daughter’s killing, but also in his long criminal history, which included shooting a man in the face.
His sentence will now be served consecutively to the sentences he is already serving for unrelated gun charges.
A New Hampshire jury found Montgomery, 34, guilty of second-degree murder, second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and tampering with a witness and informant in the death of her five-year-old child. in February.
Montgomery maintains his innocence in relation to her murder but pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to lesser charges of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Before sentencing, Harmony’s family members gave emotional victim impact statements to the court.
Crystal Sorey, Harmony’s mother, broke down in tears as she called Montgomery a “monster,” a “coward,” and “just evil.”
“It upset her that she was not like you and everything like me,” said the ugly mother, saying that her daughter had a worthwhile life “unlike yours.”
“Did she cry for me? Was she screaming? Did she beg you to stop?” Miss Sorey questioned her daughter’s brutal death. “I’ll never know.”
Miss Sorey also vowed to “find her until the end of my days.”
Miss Sorey’s sister also gave a victim impact statement, calling Montgomery the “ugliest person on the planet”. She said he was a “monster” who pretended to be a father but his daughter was “traumatised”.
A victim advocate for Montgomery’s estranged wife Kayla – who took the stand to testify against her husband at trial – read a victim impact statement in court on her behalf.
“Goodbye,” her statement began, explaining that she needed “closure.”
Although Kayla began by admitting that she will “always have a place in her heart” for Montgomery, she later accused him of “physical and emotional abuse”. She revealed that after he was arrested for Harmony’s disappearance, she started “sleeping with a knife” and was afraid of what he would do to her.
Most of her statement barely mentioned little Harmony and instead dealt with her romantic relationship with the man she claimed she saw murder her child and her plans to fight to regain custody of her children.
Blair Miller, the adopted father of Harmony Jamison’s brother, also spoke to the court on behalf of his child.
“Jamison would always ask us, ‘Where’s Harmony?’ Who took my sister away?” he said. “These are no questions for a little boy to ask.”
Speaking to Montgomery, Blair said: “Adam, you gave away your best friend. You brought murder into his life.”
If he sees a little girl with blonde hair, Jamison goes up and asks if she’s Harmony, said Jonathon Bobbitt-Miller, Mr. Miller’s husband and Jamison’s father.
“I hope to see her again,” seven-year-old Jamsion said, according to Ms. Bobbitt-Miller. “I love my sister. I miss her. I hope she is eating M&Ms in heaven. I hope his glasses are safe and not broken.”
Jamison’s parents asked the judge to give Montgomery the maximum sentence.
Prosecutors asked for no less than 56 years to life for Harmony’s violent murder.
But, in court on Wednesday, before sentencing, prosecutors offered a reduced sentence – at least 35 years to life – in exchange for Montgomery revealing “where to retrieve” the remains of the little girl in the next seven days.
The convicted murderer – who was ordered by a judge to appear at his sentencing after skipping every day of his murder trial – failed to even respond to the offer.
His silence was interpreted as denial.
“He has just shown you again in this courtroom that he is heartless, immoral and an unapologetic murderer of his own child,” the prosecutor said.
Montgomery’s defense attorney, Caroline Smith, called the motion a “stunt.”
She argued that Montgomery’s silence in response to the offer should not be equated with a lack of remorse. “Mr. Montgomery does not need to express remorse here when he has maintained his innocence,” she said, arguing that it violates his constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Ms Smith said the defendant could not offer a “proper” response because he maintained his innocence and insisted he was “worth rehabilitation”.
Before making the offer, the state argued that the heinous nature of the crimes — and the subsequent cover-up — should preclude the possibility of a reduced sentence.
“How can the minimum [sentencing] ever apply…when she died in the car while he was eating his food?”
The prosecutor added: “How could the minimum be in place when he could tell investigators where her body is now…
“There is nothing minimal about the crimes he is being convicted of today.”
The convicted murderer was ordered to appear in person for his sentencing on Wednesday after refusing to appear in court throughout his three-week murder trial.
Her conviction came nearly five years after Harmony’s murder in about November or December 2019 — and three years after authorities began searching for her.
During his trial, his defense attorney argued that while Montgomery did “horrible things” to hide Harmony’s body, he did not kill her.
Kayla’s testimony contradicted this claim, as she revealed shocking details about the little girl’s death.
She told the court that Montgomery hit her daughter repeatedly in the car one day after she had an accident.
He got “very angry with Harmony peeing in the car, and often kept punching her on the way to Burger King,” he said.
Kayla said they later realized Harmony was dead and Montgomery tried to hide her remains in different places.
She testified that the five-year-old’s body was first stored in a dumpster at Kayla’s mother’s home before being moved to a ceiling vent at a shelter where the family lived briefly – before Montgomery began taking the remains to work with daily.
The horror did not end there, however.
Kayla detailed her efforts to dispose of her daughter’s body in March 2021. She said her estranged husband considered using hand saws, lime and even a NutriBullet to destroy Harmony’s decaying remains.
Although it is unclear whether he carried out his plan, Kayla recalled seeing a “large” bag of lemons in the bathroom.
“He said he wanted to get rid of the body soon because he was scared of anything that could happen to him and the children,” she told the court.
She testified that Montgomery asked her to help him dispose of her remains, but she refused.
The child’s remains were never found.
Montgomery is already serving a 32-year sentence on unrelated charges.
In addition to the 45 years to life for murder, a judge ordered him to serve consecutive sentences in a New Hampshire state prison on other charges.
He was ordered to serve four to eight years for second-degree assault, 12 months for abuse of a corpse, as well as three and a half to seven years for falsifying physical evidence and tampering with a witness and informants over the death. to his five-year-old child.
