Harmony Montgomery’s Murder Case Relied on One Witness!

The prosecution’s case for how five-year-old Harmony Montgomery died on December 7, 2019, depended almost entirely on the testimony of Kayla Montgomery — Adam Montgomery’s estranged wife. Kayla served a sentence for lying to investigators about Harmony’s whereabouts before she agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. The corroborating evidence — DNA in a ceiling vent, a co-worker’s testimony about a restaurant freezer, a friend who witnessed Adam pacing and repeating that he had made a mistake — supported Kayla’s account of what happened after Harmony’s death. It did not corroborate her testimony about how the child died.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court identified this evidentiary disparity as the foundation for its unanimous reversal of the murder conviction. The July 2019 second-degree assault charge, tried alongside the murder, was supported by three independent witnesses who observed documented injuries. The court concluded that trying both charges together created a significant risk the jury relied on the strength of the assault evidence to bridge the gap in the murder case. The trial court’s denial of the defense’s severance motion was determined to be an unsustainable exercise of discretion.
Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta provides analysis of the ruling’s legal mechanics, the practical meaning of prejudicial joinder, the unusual procedural posture in which the defense argued both for and against severance at different stages, and the trial court’s obligation to independently evaluate the risk of unfair prejudice. Montgomery’s convictions for second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering, and desecrating remains were affirmed. He carries a separate thirty-two-and-a-half-year firearms sentence. Prosecutors have announced their intention to retry the murder charge. Harmony Montgomery’s remains have not been recovered.

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

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