Father can’t skip sentencing in Harmony’s case
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Adam Montgomery, who opted not to attend the high-profile jury trial that led to his conviction for the murder of his daughter Harmony Montgomery, won’t be allowed to skip his sentencing.
The judge who presided over the trial in February ruled that Montgomery, 34, must appear in person to be sentenced on May 9, when the victim’s family members are expected to testify about the impacts of his crimes.
Testimony at trial included gruesome details about how Montgomery fatally beat the 5year-old girl in 2019, stuffed her body into a duffel bag, which he hid for months before disposing of her remains. His efforts to evade accountability succeeded for nearly two years, as child welfare agencies in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts failed to follow up on the girl’s disappearance.
Harmony’s mother, Crystal Renee Sorey, who had lost custody in 2018, went to Manchester police in November 2021 to report her daughter missing. That triggered a multistate search and led to Montgomery’s arrest. Sorey is now pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit over the dangerous lapses in child protection services that this case exposed.
Prosecutors asked Judge Amy B. Messer to compel Montgomery to attend his sentencing, citing a state law that generally requires defendants in certain serious criminal cases to appear in person for sentencing when a victim or their next of kin addresses the judge.
A public defender responded by asking Messer to excuse Montgomery from the hearing, as the law allows, but Messer declined to do so. “Were the Court to accept the defendant’s request, it would be tantamount to excusing the defendant’s appearance simply because he did not wish to attend,” the Messer wrote in the ruling.
Messer also directed the Hillsborough County Sheriff ’s Office to “take all necessary steps to ensure the defendant’s timely appearance at his sentencing hearing” on May 9 at 1 p.m.
The prosecutors, Benjamin J. Agati and R. Christopher Knowles, wrote in a court filing earlier this month that many of those who may speak at Montgomery’s sentencing attended the trial and prior hearings, always acting with dignity.
“Harmony’s family deserves to finally be heard; not just before the Court, but by the defendant, in order to explain how his crimes have so fundamentally affected them,” they wrote.
Prosecutors noted that the state law on which their request was made had been amended in 2015 after policymakers were outraged that Seth Mazzaglia had initially sought to skip his sentencing hearing for the 2012 rape and murder of Elizabeth Marriott, a University of New Hampshire student from Westborough, Mass.
New Hampshire began generally requiring anyone convicted of certain serious offenses, including murder, manslaughter, and felonious sexual assault, to attend their sentencing.
Lawmakers in New Hampshire proposed an additional amendment this year inspired by Montgomery’s absence from trial. It would require anyone charged with a Class A felony to attend their verdict and sentencing. But corrections officials warned it could lead to dangerous confrontations with unclear use-of-force standards.
Montgomery was convicted in February on five counts. His defense team conceded at the outset of trial that he should be found guilty of falsifying physical evidence and abusing his daughter’s corpse. The jury concluded he was guilty of the other three charges as well: second-degree murder for recklessly causing his daughter’s death, seconddegree assault for an earlier incident of physical abuse, and felony witness tampering for using fear tactics and physical abuse to control his now-estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, who ultimately took the stand for two days as the state’s star witness.
The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is 35 years to life in prison, and prosecutors said that sentence will be added consecutively to the decades-long prison term Adam Montgomery is already serving for his 2023 conviction on unrelated firearms offenses.