Prosecutors on Tuesday afternoon rested their case against Adam Montgomery, who is accused of killing his 5-year-old daughter and going to great lengths to cover it up.
On Tuesday morning, a friend testified Montgomery hated his daughter Harmony because she reminded him of her mother. Jurors also heard from an investigator who followed up on a tip Harmony might be alive in Arizona and was a part of multiple searches of wooded areas in Manchester and beyond.
One of the last things the jury heard was a recorded call from jail in which Montgomery said investigators were wasting their time and taxpayer money searching for the little girl’s remains.
Montgomery, 34, is also charged with second-degree assault for allegedly causing Harmony bodily injury, including a black eye, between July 1 and July 22, 2019.
During its opening statement, the defense said Montgomery would concede to charges of abuse of a corpse and falsifying evidence. Montgomery also is charged with witness tampering.
On Tuesday, the defense tried to have the charges of second-degree murder, second-degree assault and witness tampering dismissed.
Public defender Caroline Smith said Montgomery’s estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, is the only one to have witnessed the murder alleged by the prosecution. Smith called parts of her testimony “ludicrous,” pointing out that despite the degree of violence involved, no one else saw anything.
“She has no credibility, and therefore there is no evidence of how Harmony died and who caused her death,” Smith said.
Prosecutor Benjamin Agati said Kayla Montgomery’s testimony is corroborated by various witnesses and other evidence.
Judge Amy Messer denied the requests to dismiss.
Montgomery did not appear at Hillsborough County Superior Court for the ninth straight day.
Messer told Smith and co-counsel James Brooks that if Montgomery refuses transport from the state prison on Wednesday he will forfeit his right to appear and to testify.
The jury — 14 women and three men, including five alternates — will likely begin deliberations a week earlier than expected. The trial was originally set to run to the end of the month.
Over the course of two weeks, Agati and prosecutor Christopher Knowles called 47 witnesses to the stand.
The defense has listed only three witnesses but can call those on the prosecution’s list. Attorneys were told to be prepared for closing arguments Wednesday.
‘He hated her’
Kayla Montgomery, the state’s star witness, testified Adam Montgomery discovered Harmony had died after their car broke down at Webster and Elm streets on Dec. 7, 2019. Adam Montgomery repeatedly struck the girl in the head after a bathroom accident in the car they were living out of at the time, Kayla Montgomery testified.
Kayla Montgomery reached a plea agreement on two charges of perjury to testify truthfully at trial and is serving a year-and-a-half sentence in prison.
Rebecca Maines, who is an inmate at the state prison for women, said she met Montgomery in 2021 as part of a recovery program and saw him every day.
Adam Montgomery would talk about the bathroom accidents Harmony had at the home they lived in before being evicted and in the car.
“He said she was constantly wetting her pants or using the bathroom and he put her in the corner in her soiled pants,” Maines said. “When she would get in the car she would have an accident, but he said it was on purpose.”
She said Adam Montgomery told her of a time he “backhanded” Harmony because she was holding her younger brother’s mouth closed. Adam Montgomery told her he dropped off Harmony with her mother at a rest area in Massachusetts.
“He said he hated her right to his core,” Maines said. “She reminded him of her mother.”
Harmony’s biological mother, Crystal Sorey, broke down while seated in the second row of the courtroom as she listened to Maines’s testimony.
Brooks pressed Maines on her criminal convictions between 2014 and 2019, including 11 felonies and seven misdemeanors.
Maines turned directly to the jury and said, “I am a criminal.”
Brooks alluded to Maines trying to get out of prison for testifying, which Maines denied.
Hunt for Harmony
Manchester Police Capt. Matthew Larochelle said the investigation into Harmony Montgomery’s disappearance was intense at first and included following up on an anonymous tip that Harmony was alive in Surprise, Arizona.
One search involved Fish and Game along the Merrimack River near the Colonial Village apartments.
When Agati played a jail call, Larochelle confirmed it was Adam Montgomery who was speaking.
“They wasted their time,” Montgomery said of searches conducted by the river.
“Like, way to just waste taxpayers’ money,” Montgomery continued.
Messer intends to weigh a request from the defense to exclude Kayla Montgomery’s testimony.
According to the defense, the state tried to influence Kayla Montgomery’s testimony by having her lawyer share information from the defense’s opening statement, which included the assertion that Kayla was the last person to see Harmony alive and to know how she died, according to the filing.
Agati filed an objection in the early morning hours on Tuesday.
“The idea that Ms. Montgomery learned this and somehow changed her testimony is without support; it does not also mean that the State acted in error, and more importantly, it does not mean that the sequestration order was violated in any way,” the objection reads.
