A person disposed of his five-year-old daughter’s physique “like it was trash” after brutally beating her to loss of life, a US courtroom has heard.
Harmony Montgomery was final seen in 2019 however New Hampshire Police didn’t be taught she was lacking till December 2021.
Lawyers for Adam Montgomery, 34, say he didn’t hurt his daughter, whose physique has by no means been discovered, and the final particular person to see Harmony alive – his estranged spouse – won’t say what occurred.
Police stated Harmony was killed on 7 December 2019, having selected the date of her loss of life following interviews with Montgomery’s spouse, Kayla.
Adam Montgomery pleaded not responsible to prices of second-degree homicide, abuse of a corpse, falsifying bodily proof, assault and witness tampering in relation to his daughter in 2022.
The 34-year-old declined to attend the opening statements as his trial started on Thursday.
Speaking by way of videolink the day earlier than, he informed a choose that his attorneys have been acknowledging guilt on the costs of falsifying bodily proof and abusing a corpse.
He stated in courtroom final 12 months, whereas going through an unrelated cost, that he didn’t kill his daughter.
More US information:
Five marines killed in helicopter crash
‘Elderly’ Biden will not face prices over categorized docs
Harmony’s dad and mom weren’t collectively when she was born in 2014 and he or she lived on and off with foster dad and mom and her mom, earlier than her father was given custody in February 2019.
Harmony lived with Montgomery, his new spouse Kayla and their two youthful youngsters.
The household have been evicted from their dwelling and moved into their automobile 10 days earlier than Harmony died, prosecutor Christopher Knowles stated.
Severe beating
On the day of her loss of life, Mr Knowles stated Montogomery punched his daughter a number of occasions after she had two accidents.
Following the second, he took her to a fast-food restaurant the place he did medicine whereas the five-year-old was at the back of the automobile, the courtroom heard.
Later that day the automobile broke down, which is when Montgomery and his spouse found Harmony had died, Knowles stated.
The prosecution stated Montgomery then put his daughter’s physique in a duffel bag within the boot of the automobile. He then allegedly moved it between areas for the following few months, together with the hallway of his mother-in-law’s dwelling and a freezer.
Her stays have been finally put right into a tote bag and Montgomery tried to interrupt them aside and eliminate them utilizing DIY instruments, in response to the prosecution.
“He believed that if there was no body, there could be no evidence of the horrible things that he did to her, and he would get away with it,” Knowles stated.
Montgomery’s spouse is serving an 18-month sentence after pleading responsible to perjury prices and is anticipated to testify in opposition to him.
The trial is anticipated to final the remainder of the month and Montgomery, who was sentenced final 12 months to a minimal of 32-and-a-half years in jail on gun prices, may withstand life in jail on the second-degree homicide cost.
Source: information.sky.com”