Closing arguments have concluded in the Harmony Montgomery murder trial and the jury is now set to begin its deliberations.
Harmony's father, Adam Montgomery, is accused of beating the 5-year-old girl to death in 2019.
The defense tried unsuccessfully on Tuesday to get three of the charges against Adam Montgomery dismissed, arguing that the state's key witness, Adam's estranged wife Kayla Montgomery, is not credible.
The prosecution rested its case Tuesday following nine days of testimony. Defense attorneys chose not to present their own case Wednesday, instead moving directly to closing arguments.
Public defender Caroline Smith began her closing argument by recounting Kayla's description of Harmony's death, detailing how Adam beat the young girl to death in their car after the child wet herself.
"She didn't remember this. She made this up," Smith said.
And she said the lies got worse from there. Under cross-examination, Smith said Kayla admitted that no one had cleaned up Harmony afterward. Smith also questioned how Adam could have beaten Harmony repeatedly in broad daylight in the car without anyone seeing it.
"That was a lie. It cannot happen, it could not be, and it makes no sense," she said. "It doesn't because it's a lie. All that horror, all that chaos at the intersection -- oh my God, what could be worse. It's an absolute nightmare. You have done something to a child over and over again for hours and you get stuck in the intersection and somehow or another you've got to make sure nobody sees that child."
Smith said in reality, Harmony was already dead and her body was wrapped up in the trunk when their car broke down at that intersection.
She also said that if Kayla had truly watched Adam beat Harmony to death, "Any love she had for Adam would have died," when during the trial Kayla testified that she still loves Adam.
"There are reasons women stand by their men. But not for that. No one would stand for that," Smith said. "Why did Kayla stand by Adam? Because that never happened. Adam was not a threat to her because of Harmony's death. Adam was her protector."
Several times during her closing arguments, Smith repeated the phrase, "Wake up, baby girl, wake up," words she said were spoken by Adam after he found out Harmony had died.
"Adam did some very, very bad things, but he did not kill his daughter," Smith said. "His choices got him where he is today. He has no one but himself to blame. He did what he did and he got blamed for something he did not do."
"Can you put your trust for one of most important decisions of your life in Kayla?" she asked the jury. "Because that's what you would have to do. There's no doubt that the police know she's a liar, the state knows that she's a liar -- she's charged with perjury, lying to the grand jury."
Smith said the jury's verdict "could be easy, it could be quick" if they rely on anger and emotion. "But if you take the time, you take a breath and you go through the evidence, piece by piece, evaluate, talk to each other... If you do that, you will find that Adam Montgomery is not guilty."
Prosecutors began their closing argument shortly after 11:30 a.m., starting with Adam Montgomery's own statement to his friend Travis Beach: "I f---ed up. Not she, not we, not Kayla -- I. I f---ed up. Singular, solo," Senior Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Benjamin Agati said.
"Adam Montgomery was no loving, caring parent, but an enraged tyrant who had no business being around young Harmony," he added.
Agati also quoted Adam's own words on another occasion: "I think I hurt her this time. I think I did something."
He said the defense's argument that Kayla would have reacted instinctively to protect Harmony if she had witnessed Adam beating her to death doesn't hold up because Kayla was conditioned by Adam not to do anything.
"She did nothing," Agati said. "You don't have to like her to believe her. You don't have to like what she did. But that doesn't change the fact that she saw the defendant beat Harmony to death."
"What she is is a battered woman admitting an inconvenient and terrible truth," he said. "She failed in a moment of life when her character was put to the test. She did nothing to help Harmony... [but] she didn't kill her. Only the defendant did that."
Agati also pointed out that there is more than just Kayla's testimony to go on. Fifty witnesses testified, providing some level of corroboration for Kayla's testimony.
Prosecutors concluded their closing argument shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday, and Judge Amy Messer gave final instructions to the jury before sending them off to deliberate around 1:15 p.m.
Rebecca Maines, who is in prison for a parole violation, testified that Adam Montgomery told her in the summer of 2021 that he had been trying to see Harmony since 2019, when he dropped her off to be with her mother because he said she was having bathroom accidents “on purpose.”
Even though Adam Montgomery had been granted legal custody of the girl months before she vanished, Maines testified that he told her that Harmony’s mother wouldn’t allow him to visit her.
Authorities believe Montgomery killed the girl on Dec. 7, 2019, but she wasn’t reported missing until nearly two years later. Harmony’s body has not been found.
Adam Montgomery pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in 2022 and proclaimed in court last year in an unrelated case that he did not kill his daughter and loved her unconditionally. As his trial got underway in Manchester on Feb. 7, defense attorneys acknowledged he is guilty of two lesser charges he faces: falsifying evidence and abusing a corpse. But they said he did not kill Harmony, and instead suggested she actually died on Dec. 6 while alone with her stepmother Kayla Montgomery.
Adam Montgomery, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence for an unrelated gun conviction, hasn’t been attending his trial.
Maines, who described Adam Montgomery at one point as her best friend, also testified about an incident that happened before he said he took Harmony to her mother. She said he told her he “backhanded” his daughter after seeing her put her hand over her younger brother’s lips and nose. In earlier testimony, Adam Montgomery’s uncle testified that he saw Harmony with a black eye at the family home in 2019 and that Adam told him he “bashed” her around the house after seeing her put her hands on her brother.
During cross-examination, Maines was asked about her criminal record from 2014 to 2019, which includes theft and fraud convictions. She is scheduled for a parole hearing in April, but also faces several pending charges.
“I am a criminal. I don’t have a problem telling you that,” Maines testified. She also said she was in treatment for substance abuse when asked about missing a court appearance for her cases.
Defense attorneys also suggested that Maines was trying to better her legal situation by testifying. She denied making or asking for any promises about her pending charges in exchange for her testimony.
Adam Montgomery and Crystal Sorey, Harmony’s mother, were not in a relationship when Harmony was born in 2014. The child lived on and off with foster families and her mother. Crystal Sorey lost custody of Harmony in 2018, and Adam Montgomery was awarded custody in February 2019. Sorey testified that she last saw her daughter during a FaceTime call around Easter of that year.
Kayla Montgomery has been the star witness against her estranged husband. She is serving an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to perjury for lying during grand jury testimony about where she was when Harmony was last seen. She was not given immunity, but she acknowledged to defense lawyers that she hasn’t faced further consequences for inconsistencies in her various statements to police or prosecutors.
Kayla Montgomery testified that her husband repeatedly punched Harmony in the head because the girl had urinated on herself. She said her family, including the couple’s two young sons, had been evicted and were living in a car at the time. According to Kayla, Adam punched Harmony at several stop lights as they drove from a methadone clinic to a fast food restaurant on the morning of Dec. 7, 2019.
She also testified about handing food to the children without checking on Harmony, the subsequent discovery that the girl was dead, and all the places she said her husband hid the body, including in a ceiling vent at a homeless shelter and the walk-in freezer at her husband’s workplace. Kayla Montgomery testified that she didn’t come forward about Harmony’s death because she was afraid of her husband.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
