Thursday’s testimony in the case over the death and disappearance of Harmony Montgomery covered a bag prosecutors say her father carried her body in and the U-Haul truck he allegedly used to finally dump her body.
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Testimony continued Thursday in the Adam Montgomery murder trial, with a DNA expert and two coworkers among the witnesses taking the stand.
Thursday's first witness was Alan Ackroyd-Isales, a senior DNA analyst with DNA Labs International who was involved in conducting testing connected to the Adam Montgomery case. He testified mostly about DNA testing conducted on ceiling tiles taken from a family shelter where Adam Montgomery stayed after prosecutors say he killed his 5-year-old daughter Harmony. He said the DNA matched Harmony's.
The second witness Thursday was Emily Thompson, a former coworker of Adam Montgomery's at Portland Pie Co., where prosecutors say Adam temporarily stored a bag containing Harmony's body. Thompson testified that she thinks she remembers Adam bringing a bag to the walk-in cooler in the winter of 2020.
Also testifying Thursday was Cameron Gibney, a Hooksett resident who used to live in Manchester and also worked at Portland Pie Co. with Adam Montgomery in the winter of 2020. He was a server and later became front of house manager.
He testified that he saw Adam Montgomery with a bag inside and around the restaurant and inside the walk-in cooler off of the kitchen area.
"He always would just place it inside the walk-in cooler on the lower shelf, sometimes even move it to a different location, but it was mainly on the lower left hand side inside the cooler," Gibney said.
He said Adam had the bag with him on multiple occasions when he arrived and left Portland Pie Co. Also stored there were mustard and a bunch of other condiments.
Gibney said he never saw anyone but Adam handling the bag. He also said he didn't know of any other employees who stored bags inside the walk-in cooler.
Jurors also heard testimony from Bob Wasson, who worked at a Home Depot in Manchester and was asked about a receipt for $400 worth of purchases made from that store in 2020, including lyme, a grinder tool, a blade for a tool and a battery.
Manchester police Detective Max Rayhill began testifying just before the lunch break. In June 4, 2022, he said he responded along with other detectives to the Families In Transition shelter where Adam Montgomery stayed with his family in early 2020 after prosecutors say he killed Harmony.
Rayhill testified that as part of the investigation into Harmony Montgomery's disappearance he was involved in reviewing the bank account of Adam Montgomery's estranged wife Kayla. He said they were looking for purchases of lime based on statements Kayla had made to police.
Prosecutors referenced the same receipt Wasson had testified about, from Feb. 26, 2020 at a Home Depot in Manchester. The receipt included a purchase of a 40-pound lime bag, an angle grinder, a blade and a battery.
Rayhill resumed his testimony after the break, being cross-examined by defense attorney Caroline Smith.
Also testifying Thursday afternoon was Britney Bedard, the ex-girlfriend of Adam Montgomery's friend Travis Beach. Prosecutors say Bedard paid for the U-Haul van that they say Adam used to dispose of Harmony's body.
Bedard testified that the U-Haul was rented "in someone's name" and they needed a credit card on file, so Adam and another person rented the vehicle using her card.
After Bedard, the next witness to take the stand was Dennis Cloutier. He said he was a maintenance contractor and plumber who worked for the landlord of an apartment at 644 Union St. in Manchester where Adam and Kayla Montgomery once lived.
Prosecutors say Cloutier was called to the apartment on Feb. 27, 2020 to unclog a bathtub drain where they say Adam Montgomery tried to dismember Harmony's body.
"The guy called about his tub not draining," Cloutier said. "I knocked on his door, met him in kitchen... went around to the bathroom. He said 'The drain did not drain,' so I removed the rest of it, snaked out the drain, and discovered he had dislodged the plunger that hooks to the lever, so that was stuck down in the drain."
"So I snaked the drain and replaced the plate," he said. "I was in and out of there in maybe 35 minutes."
He said Adam Montgomery was right outside the door while he did the repairs, pacing back and forth.
Cloutier said he recalls being called back another time to replace some lights that were hanging by the wires from the ceiling. He said Adam Montgomery told him he took them down because he thought there were cameras in them.
When the Montgomerys moved out of the apartment, Cloutier said he was called by the landlord to clean out the apartment. He said as part of that cleaning, he discarded the refrigerator that was in the apartment.
Brendon Middleton, who is currently incarcerated, testified about the U-Haul truck that he rented March 3, 2020, which then passed along to Beach and Bedard. Records showed that the truck traveled more than 100 miles by the time it was returned — he didn't return it, Middleton testified.
The final witness of the day was Roseanne Smith, who drives for a non-emergency medical transport company and regularly brought Adam and Kayla Montgomery, as well as their two young sons, to methadone appointments. She recalled singing "Baby Shark" to the children in the van while their parents "would go in and dose."
One day stood out to Smith, she recalled: "It was something I'll never forget."
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That day in March 2021, Kayla's "left eye was badly bruised and started to swell shut," which was new — she hadn't had the black eye the day before, Smith testified. Adam Montgomery was also in the car; she believed the children weren't with them.
Smith tried to give Kayla her phone after Adam walked away from the car, Smith said — "she said she wanted to call for help" — but that Adam spotted it when he came back.
"I didn't see Adam there, I saw rage, pure rage walking towards me," Smith said.
Asked what he did, Smith said, "He reached into the window of the car and twisted the phone out of my hand and said, you're not giving my wife that phone."
But he went on to give the phone back, Smith said: "I looked at him and I said, 'Adam, I love you, please give me the phone back, I'm trying to help you guys.'"
Asked again in cross-examination about what happened, she said that Adam "softened" after she begged him for the phone back: "The anger in his face went away, but the rage that he had in the face, and then that kneejerk reaction that he had to it by snatching the phone out of my hand, it was very frightening. It was assault."
In court Wednesday, defense attorneys argued that investigators mishandled evidence and it is now compromised.
Also on Day 6 of the high-profile trial, jurors were shown part of a ceiling from the Families In Transition shelter in Manchester, New Hampshire, where Adam Montgomery is accused of hiding Harmony after he killed her in late 2019.
One Manchester officer recalled the smell while processing the scene.
"As soon as i removed the cover, I could smell what I know is decomposition," Officer Scott Riley said. "I could smell a dead body, what I believed to be a dead body. It's a smell you just wont forget."
Kayla Montgomery testified last week that Adam beat Harmony to death after a bathroom accident in the car they were living in. Authorities believe the girl was killed on Dec. 7, 2019, almost two years before she was reported missing. The girl's body still has not been found.
Adam Montgomery has not returned to the courtroom since jury selection over a week ago.
