A New Hampshire father proclaimed his innocence within the homicide of Harmony Montgomery, his 5-year-old daughter who vanished in 2019 after he was awarded custody and is presumed lifeless.
Adam Montgomery, 33, spoke earlier than being sentenced Monday on unrelated gun expenses.
Harmony was reported lacking in November 2021, practically two years after investigators say her father killed her. The physique has not been discovered, however Harmony’s stepmother has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Dressed in an orange prisoner jumpsuit, Montgomery acknowledged {that a} jury had discovered him responsible of possessing weapons regardless of his earlier felony convictions. But he requested the choose to not think about his daughter’s homicide case when sentencing him.
“I did not kill my daughter Harmony and I look forward to my upcoming trial to refute those offensive claims,” he mentioned, acknowledging that he was an addict and would use his time in jail to “change things about myself”
“I could have had a meaningful life but I blew that opportunity through drugs,” he continued. “I loved my daughter unconditionally and I did not kill her.”
Authorities allege that Montgomery killed his daughter by repeatedly hanging her within the head together with his fist. He’s scheduled for trial in that case in November. He pleaded not responsible final October to second-degree homicide, falsifying bodily proof and abuse of a corpse expenses.
After listening to from either side, Hillsborough Superior Court Judge Amy Messer sentenced Montgomery to at the least 30 years in jail and as much as 60 years on the fees of being an armed profession legal. He was additionally sentenced to an extra 7 1/2 to fifteen years for receiving stolen property and theft. On every of these sentences, 5 years could be suspended for good conduct.
Messer mentioned the sentence was acceptable given Montgomery’s historical past of violent conduct, the function that weapons performed in his crimes, and the “brazen nature of his conduct.”
“These guns were stolen. There was a child in the house,” she mentioned. “The guns were sold to and bought back from a convicted sex offender, and ultimately one of the guns was discovered in the hands of an individual who is apparently trafficking in both guns and drugs.”
Montgomery’s legal professional tried to steer the choose that her consumer’s drug historical past — and the truth that the sale didn’t contain a violent crime — ought to end in lesser sentence.
“We don’t have physical harm to anybody. We don’t have an assault of somebody,” Caroline Smith mentioned. “It was a crime of opportunity. Also, the evidence is that Mr. Montgomery was — he was addict. He was a drug addict. The purpose surrounding this crime, the evidence is that it was either for drugs or money to get drugs.”
The prosecution’s witnesses included Kayla Montgomery, Adam Montgomery’s estranged spouse, who testified he advised her he took the weapons. Kayla Montgomery is serving an 18-month jail sentence. She had pleaded responsible to expenses that she lied to a grand jury about the place she was working the day she final noticed Harmony.
Lawyers for Adam Montgomery mentioned the prosecution’s case relied on lies from different witnesses and that police reached the unsuitable conclusion.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”