Court Overturns Adam Montgomery’s Murder Conviction

Key Points:

• The New Hampshire Supreme Court unanimously overturned Adam Montgomery’s second-degree murder conviction for the death of his five-year-old daughter, citing insufficient corroboration of key testimony from his wife, Kayla Montgomery.
• The Court upheld Montgomery’s convictions on other charges, including falsifying evidence, witness tampering, second-degree assault, and abuse of a corpse, and remanded the murder charge back to the lower court for further proceedings.
• The decision highlighted that the trial combining the assault and murder charges prejudiced the jury, as the assault evidence was strong while the murder evidence was weaker and largely based on Kayla’s testimony.
• The case revealed systemic failures by the Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), which repeatedly ignored reports and failed to protect Harmony despite multiple warnings from family and neighbors about ongoing abuse.
• Harmony’s birth mother settled a lawsuit with the state for $2.25 million, and recently secured a $15 million civil judgment against Adam Montgomery for the murder of her daughter.