Murder conviction of former Massachusetts 5-year-old overturned by Supreme Court

According to a released ruling, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has overturned Adam Montgomery’s second-degree murder conviction in the 2019 death of his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery, citing an error in how the case was tried.

The unanimous ruling reversed just the murder conviction. The court affirmed Montgomery’s convictions on several other charges, including second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering, and abuse of a corpse

Montgomery was convicted in February 2024 of beating his daughter to death in December 2019 while the family was living in a car in Manchester after being evicted. Harmony’s body has never been found. Prosecutors allege that Montgomery and his then-wife, Kayla Montgomery, moved the child’s remains to multiple locations, including a homeless shelter and a pizza shop freezer, before ultimately disposing of them.

Montgomery was sentenced in May 2024 to 45 years to life in prison for the murder, plus additional time on the other charges, for a total minimum sentence of 56 years to life to be served after a prior sentence he was already serving for unrelated weapons convictions.

The Supreme Court found that the trial court improperly joined the second-degree murder charge with a separate second-degree assault charge stemming from an earlier incident of abuse against Harmony in July 2019. The justices ruled that hearing the charges together risked prejudicing the jury against Montgomery on the murder count.

Prosecutors now have the option to retry him on the second-degree murder charge in a new trial where the assault charge would likely be handled separately.

As previously stated by officials, Harmony once attended school in Massachusetts.