Adam Montgomery has been sentenced to 45 years behind bars for the gruesome murder of his five-year-old daughter Harmony, after refusing to accept a lesser sentence in exchange for finally revealing what he did with her remains.
A judge said Wednesday that Montgomery’s “extreme indifference to human life” was evident not only in the murder of his daughter, but also in his lengthy criminal history, including shooting a man in the face.
His sentence will now be served consecutively, along with the sentences he is already serving on unrelated weapons charges.
A jury in New Hampshire found Montgomery, 34, guilty of second-degree murder, second-degree assault, tampering with physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and tampering with a witness and informants in the February death of his five-year-old child.
Montgomery continues to maintain his innocence of her murder, but pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to lesser charges of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Before the verdict was handed down, Harmony’s family members made 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 bothered her to the core that she looked nothing like you and everything like me,” the grieving mother said, saying her daughter had a life worth living “unlike yours.”
‘Did she cry for me? Did she scream? Did she beg you to stop? Mrs. Sorey asked about her daughter’s brutal death. “I’ll never know.”
Ms. Sorey also vowed to “search for her until the end of my days.”
Ms Sorey’s sister also provided a victim impact statement, calling Montgomery the “meanest person on the planet.” She said he was a “monster” who pretended to be a father but actually “traumatized” his daughter.
A victim impact statement for Montgomery’s estranged wife Kayla — who took the stand to testify against her husband at the trial — was read in court on her behalf by a victim advocate.
“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 “physically and emotionally abusing” her. She revealed that after he was arrested for Harmony’s disappearance, she “started sleeping with a knife” out of fear of what he might do to her.
Most of her statement barely mentioned little Harmony, instead revolving around her romantic relationship with the man she claimed witnessed his child’s murder and her plans to fight for custody of their get children back.
Blair Miller, the adopted father of Harmony’s brother Jamison, also spoke in court on behalf of his child.
“Jamison kept asking us, ‘Where’s Harmony?’ Who took my sister?’ he said. “These are not questions a little boy can ask.”
Blair then turned to Montgomery and said, “Adam, you took away his best friend. You introduced murder into his life.”
When he sees a little girl with blonde hair, Jamison goes upstairs and asks if she is Harmony, said Jonathon Bobbitt-Miller, Mr. Miller’s husband and Jamison’s father.
“I hope I see her again,” seven-year-old Jamsion said, Mr Bobbitt-Miller said. “I love my sister. I miss her. I hope she is eating M&Ms in heaven. I hope her glasses are safe and not broken.”
Jamison’s parents asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence on Montgomery.
Prosecutors had sought as many as 56 years to life in prison for Harmony’s brutal murder.
But on Wednesday, before the verdict was handed down, prosecutors in court offered a reduced sentence — a minimum of 35 years to life in prison — in exchange for Montgomery disclosing “where he could find the little girl’s remains within the next seven days ”.
The convicted killer — who was ordered by a judge to appear at his sentencing after skipping every day of his murder trial — didn’t even respond to the offer.
His silence was interpreted as a rejection.
“He has just shown you once again in this courtroom that he is heartless, immoral and an unapologetic murderer of his own child,” the prosecutor said.
Montgomery’s lawyer Caroline Smith called the offer a “stunt.”
She argued that Montgomery’s silence in response to the offer should not be equated with a lack of remorse. “There is no need for Mr. Montgomery to express remorse here where he has maintained his innocence,” she said, arguing it violates his constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Ms Smith said the defendant cannot provide an “appropriate” response because he has maintained his innocence and argued he would be “worthy of rehabilitation”.
Before making the offer, the state had argued that the heinous nature of the crimes – and the subsequent cover-up – should rule out the possibility of a reduced sentence.
“How is the minimum possible? [sentencing] ever applied…when she died in the car while he ate his dinner?’
The prosecutor added: “How could the minimum ever apply if he could tell investigators where her body is now… so she can be laid to rest?
“There is nothing minimal about the crimes he is being sentenced for today.”
The convicted killer was ordered to appear in person for sentencing on Wednesday after refusing to appear in court during his three-week murder trial.
His conviction came nearly five years after Harmony was killed around November or December 2019 — and three years after authorities began searching for her.
During his trial, his attorney insisted that while Montgomery “did terrible things” to hide Harmony’s body, he did not kill her.
Kayla’s testimony contradicted this claim as she revealed harrowing details about the little girl’s death.
She told the court how Montgomery repeatedly hit his daughter in the car one day after she had an accident.
He became “very angry because Harmony peed in the car, and he continued to hit her repeatedly on the way to Burger King,” he said.
Kayla said they later realized that Harmony was dead and that Montgomery tried to hide her remains in several places.
She testified that the five-year-old’s body was first stored in a cooler at Kayla’s mother’s home before being moved to a ceiling fan at a shelter where the family lived for a short time — before Montgomery started taking the remains with him to work every day.
However, the horror didn’t end there.
Kayla described his efforts to dispose of his daughter’s body in March 2021. She said her estranged husband considered using a handsaw, lime and even a NutriBullet to destroy Harmony’s rotting remains.
While it is unclear whether he actually carried out his plan, Kayla recalled seeing him in the bathroom with a “big” bag of limes.
“He said he wanted to get rid of the body quickly because he was afraid of everything 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 prison sentence on unrelated charges.
In addition to the 45 years to life for murder, a judge ordered him to serve consecutive sentences in 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, and three and a half to seven years for both falsifying physical evidence and tampering with a witness and informants about the death. of his five-year-old child.