Prosecutors have submitted their sentencing recommendation for Adam Montgomery ahead of Thursday's sentencing hearing.
The sentencing document requests a sentence of 56 years to life for Montgomery, convicted earlier this year of second-degree murder in the death of his 5-year-old daughter Harmony, who police believe was killed nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021 and whose body was never found.
"The effect this crime has had on Harmony’s family and the community is immeasurable. The defendant robbed Harmony and her family of the person she was going to become," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo. "He killed all potential she held and eradicated the potential good she could do for her family and the community. Harmony left behind young siblings, one who was one year old when he last saw her, and another born later who will
never know her."
Montgomery, 34, did not attend his trial and wasn’t present when jurors returned their verdict. A judge has ordered him to attend his sentencing, scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Manchester.
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Adam Montgomery’s attorneys earlier acknowledged his guilt on two lesser charges, that he “purposely and unlawfully removed, concealed or destroyed” her corpse and falsified physical evidence, but said he didn’t kill his daughter. The jury also convicted him of assaulting Harmony in 2019 and of tampering with the key prosecution witness, his estranged wife and stepmother of his daughter, Kayla Montgomery.
Investigators believe Harmony Montgomery was slain in December 2019, though she wasn’t reported missing for almost two years. Kayla Montgomery testified that the body was hidden in the trunk of a car, a cooler, a ceiling vent and a workplace freezer before Adam Montgomery disposed of it.
Adam Montgomery had custody of the girl. Her mother, Crystal Sorey, who was no longer in a relationship with him, said the last time she saw Harmony Montgomery was during a video call in April 2019. She eventually went to police, who announced they were looking for the missing child on New Year’s Eve 2021.
Photos of the girl were widely circulated on social media. Police eventually determined she had been killed.
Kayla Montgomery is serving an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to perjury charges related to the investigation into the child’s disappearance and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. She testified that that her husband killed Harmony Montgomery on Dec. 7, 2019, while the family lived in their car after being evicted from their home.
Kayla Montgomery testified that her husband repeatedly punched Harmony Montgomery in the face and head because he was angry that she was having bathroom accidents in the car.
The couple noticed the girl was dead hours later when the car broke down, at which time Adam Montgomery put her body in a duffel bag, Kayla Montgomery had testified.
For the next three months, she testified, Adam Montgomery moved the body from container to container and place to place. According to his wife, the locations included the trunk of a friend’s car, a cooler in the hallway of his mother-in-law’s apartment building, the ceiling vent of a homeless shelter and a workplace freezer.
Authorities have said previously that the trial does not end the search for the girl.
Adam Montgomery is already serving a sentence of up to 60 years in prison after being convicted on separate weapons charges in 2023.
