Editor’s note: Some of the details described in the story below may be disturbing for readers.
The trial of the New Hampshire man accused of killing his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery, in 2019 continued on Friday with testimony from the state's star witness.
Opening statements and emotional testimony were the focal point of the second day of the murder trial of Adam Montgomery. Prosecutors laid out a disturbing story of how Adam Montgomery killed Harmony by hitting his daughter after she soiled herself.
"The defendant beat Harmony because she had a bathroom accident, something she had no control over," New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Christopher said.
They say the man then transported the young girl’s body from place to place in a duffel bag for months to cover up the crime. But the defense argues someone is responsible for her death -- Adam Montgomery's estranged wife Kayla Montgomery.
The defense has spent the afternoon trying to poke holes in Kayla Montgomery’s story. They say she’s lying and is responsible for the death of the young girl.
'It was like, evil... his crazy eyes': Kayla Montgomery testifies
Kayla Montgomery, the state's star witness, took the stand on Friday morning, breaking into tears as she discussed Harmony.
The 33-year-old is currently serving a sentence at the New Hampshire Correctional Facility for Women in Concord for perjury as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. She allegedly lied to a grand jury about her whereabouts when Harmony was last seen, saying Adam dropped her off at work at Dunkin' Donuts on Nov. 30. 2019, when she in fact no longer worked there at the time because she had been fired for stealing money from the cash register.
She testified Friday that she lied "because I was scared" and because Adam told her to.
"I was scared for myself and my children and for Adam, because I didn't want anyone to get in trouble and I was scared," she said.
Kayla Montgomery also went into horrifying detail as she described what she said Adam Montgomery did to his daughter back on Dec. 7, 2019, the day she said Harmony was beaten to death.
She testified that Adam, Kayla, Harmony and Kayla's 2-year-old and 1-year-old sons were all living in a Chrysler Sebring in the parking lot of a Manchester apartment complex after getting evicted from their home, and that Harmony was repeatedly urinating and defecating in her seat rather than telling her parents that she needed to go to the bathroom.
"It happened a lot -- at least every day," Kayla Montgomery said.
She said that Adam Montgomery got angry, and would hit Harmony in the face or on her leg or her hand.
"She would cry whenever she got smacked by him, and I could hear it and it sounds like it hurt," Kayla said.
She said the abuse caused visible injuries to Harmony, including black eyes and bruises on her face and legs. She said Adam Montgomery would often cover his daughter with a blanket so that people couldn't see her injuries.
Kayla testified that on Dec. 7, 2019, Harmony had an accident early in the morning before the family drove to the methadone clinic.
"He was yelling and screaming at her and punching her in the head, and she was crying," Kayla said.
Shortly after 7 a.m., she said she and Adam went to get their methadone dose, and when Adam got back into the car he could smell urine and he started yelling at Harmony and hitting her in the head repeatedly, right in front of the methadone clinic.
Kayla then asked if they could go to Burger King, and as Adam began driving in that direction, she could hear Harmony making noises.
"She was crying a lot, and she was making a weird noise. Adam was getting really angry from Harmony peeing in the car and he repetitively kept punching her on the way to Burger King. There were a couple red lights, and when we were at the red lights he would go over the driver's seat, like in between the passenger seat, and he was just punching her repetitively in the head."
At that point, Kayla said Harmony started making "a moaning kind of noise."
"I put my arm up and said to stop, but he looks at me and he gave me this look. It was like, evil... his crazy eyes. I didn't like it and I couldn't stop him from hitting her because the look he gave me was scary."
Shortly after that, Kayla said Adam stopped. "He said he thinks that he really hurt her, but he felt something."
The family then ordered food from the Burger King drive-thru and ate in the parking lot.
Harmony eventually stopped moaning, but neither Adam nor Kayla checked on her. Instead, Kayla said they went and got some heroin and crack and got high. A short time later, the car died at a traffic light, and the family was forced to abandon the vehicle.
At that time, Kayla said Adam realized that Harmony had died.
"Adam was trying to wake her up and she didn't reply or anything. He said 'Harmony' and he kept saying, 'Baby girl' and trying to budge her and there was nothing," she said.
From there, they walked back to the parking lot of the apartment complex, and Kayla said Adam put Harmony's body in a duffle bag and deposited it in a snowbank. A friend allowed them to sleep in his car for the weekend until they figured something out. They later went to Kayla's aunt's house in Manchester, where Kayla said Adam stashed the duffle bag with Harmony's body inside under the porch. When they went to stay at Kayla's mother's apartment, Kayla said Adam transferred Harmony's body to a cooler and eventually put her body in the ceiling in the vent of the room they were saying in.
For a time, Kayla said Adam kept Harmony's body in a freezer at Portland Pie, the restaurant where he worked.
Kayla then described in grisly detail how Adam dismembered Harmony's body in the bathtub at Kayla's mother's apartment using a NutriBullet blender and lyme to help the remains decompose.
"I saw Harmony in the bathtub still folded together the same way that she was left in the bag when we took her out of the car," Kayla Montgomery said. "And she just looked like she had just barely any skin, like she was just a layer of skin and bone and she was all bruised up."
Adam later told Kayla that he wanted to get rid of the body soon, "because he was scared that if anything ever happened, he was scared of what would happen to him and me and the kids."
She said he got in touch with an old friend of his, rented a U-Haul, and when he returned home, the bag containing Harmony's body was no longer with him.
"He didn't say where they were going. He said he wasn't telling me where he was bringing her so if anything like this happened and the cops got involved that I wouldn't know where she is so I couldn't tell anybody where she is. Only he would know."
Kayla said Adam later became paranoid that she was talking with police, and repeatedly beat her until she and her two children finally moved out on March 17, 2021.
Prosecutors also asked Kayla point blank if she killed Harmony, attempting to get ahead of defense attorneys, to which she replied, "No, I did not."
Kayla Montgomery returned to court after the lunch break to be cross-examined by the defense.
During that cross-examination, the defense drilled down on the idea that Kayla Montgomery lied to the grand jury. She did not dispute that she lied, but there was conflict about how many times and exactly what was a lie and what was the truth.
“You kept insisting that all you knew was that Adam drove off with Harmony. And that was all you knew."
“Yes”
“ And that was a lie.”
“Yes."
During opening statements, Adam Montgomery's defense blamed Kayla for Harmony's death, saying she’s changed stories and lied to protect herself.
"Adam Montgomery did not cause Harmony's death. Kayla Montgomery was the last person to see Harmony alive," defense attorney James Brooks argued Thursday.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.
"Kayla was an equal participant in the cover-up. She knows how Harmony died and she won’t tell," Brooks said.
Authorities said Harmony died Dec. 7, 2019, in a car she was living in with father, stepmother and two younger stepbrothers in Manchester. They said Harmony passed away after her father hit her and her body eventually ended up in a bag, which prosecutors say Montgomery moved to places like a homeless shelter and apartment.
Police didn't declare the child missing until 2021, and her remains have yet to be found.
"He believed that if there was nobody, there could be no evidence of the horrible things that he did to her and he would get away with it," Knowles said.
Harmony Montgomery's mother offers tearful testimony
After opening statements came witness testimony. Harmony’s biological mother Crystal Sorey took the stand to answer questions about when she last saw her daughter and the type of child she was.
"I just kept reaching out to Adam and Kayla and Kayla and asking them, begging them to see her. I was sorry for whatever did even sure what I did," Sorey told the jury.
Sorey said she only saw Harmony twice in person and twice on Facetime after losing custody of her daughter in 2019. She said her daughter was "amazing," "rambunctious", and "very smart."
Other family members also spoke. Adam Montgomery’s uncle and Harmony’s great-uncle Kevin Montgomery testified that he witnessed an assault on Harmony by her father in 2019. He later contacted child welfare about it.
The girl had a black eye and when Kevin Montgomery asked her what happened, he said his nephew replied:
"She didn’t do anything. I bashed her around the f*** house."
Michelle Rafferty, Harmony’s foster mother, also took the stand to describe the Harmony she knew.
"She was a loving child, she was very sweet, very happy … super social, she loved to be with people wherever she went. She left people happy, and you knew that you met her," she recalled.
Why is Adam Montgomery not in court?
Adam Montgomery was in court on Tuesday during jury selection but has been absent since the trial started on Wednesday.
He waived his right to appear for the trial proceedings on Wednesday and Thursday. It's not known if he'll appear in court later in the trial
