Harmony Montgomery’s father Adam skips own murder trial as estranged wife finishes testimony: Updates

Matthew Gendron said that he received texts from Kayla and Adam Montgomery’s joint Facebook account.

The Montgomerys asked Gendron if he could help them jump-start their car after it died.

When he declined, he received a message reading: “I’m gonna try[,] can we die in this weather[?} we c[a]n right ... [We’re] just really c[o]ld.”

Officer Neil Penttinen responded to two accidents the Montgomerys had in November and December 2019.

Officer Penttinen said that during the second instance, he recognised Adam Montgomery and saw two boys inside the vehicle.

Montgomery, 34, is facing trial in Manchester on second-degree murder charges in connection with Harmony Montgomery’s killing. Montgomery has said he intended to plead guilty to two lesser charges of abuse of a corpse and falsifying evidence.

Opening arguments finally began on Thursday following a delay on Wednesday so jurors could go on a view tour of key locations in the case.

Presenting the disturbing case to the jury panel, a state prosecutor detailed the great lengths that Montgomery went to conceal and abuse his daughter’s corpse — and how he stored the remains in a walk-in freezer at a restaurant where he worked.

“Why stay with someone that does what he did to a helpless girl?” the prosecutor asked Kayla Montgomery as he held a large picture of her beaten face — allegedly caused by Montogmery.

“Because for some reason, I still care about him,” Kayla answered with her head down as she wiped her tears.

“Why stay with someone that beat her to death,” the prosecutor pushed.

“I don’t know, I was scared.”

Montgomery’s uncle Kevin Montgomery, who briefly lived in the same home along with Montgomery, his wife and kids, said while on the stand that he did not want to be in court but was subpoenaed to testify. Kevin told jurors he took a trip to Florida in July 2019 to visit family.

When he returned on 22 July 2019, he noticed Harmony had a black eye.

“Looked full all the way around, like a racoon’s eye,” he told jurors as he became emotional. “I said something along the lines of, ‘Oh my f***ing God, what did you do, Harmony?”

Harmony did not answer the question, but Adam Montgomery did, Kevin said.

“She didn’t do anything, I bashed her around the f***ing house,” he claimed his nephew answered.

Kevin told several relatives about the incident, including Harmony’s mother and foster mother, and also called the Department of Child and Family Services. A DCFS checked in on Harmony but only noticed a “small red mark” under her eye that her father claimed she got during a soccer game.

Kevin Montgomery tried to get ahold of his nephew in 2020, to no avail. He later realised that Adam Montgomery had blocked him on Facebook.

Under cross-examination, the defence tried to argue that Montgomery hit his daughter by accident after he walked in on her trying to suffocate her baby brother. However, Kevin Montgomery said he only recalled Montgomery saying Harmony had her fingers on the baby’s mouth.

During redirect, Kevin Montgomery clarified that he didn’t think Adam Montgomery was just “jerking Harmony” away from her brother, or that his comment about “bashing Harmony around the f***ing house” was sarcasm.

The prosecution argued that Harmony had met all the milestones for a girl her age, and only began soiling herself when she was sent to live in an abusive environment with her father. Harmony’s foster mother Michelle Raftery told jurors on Thursday that Harmony was potty trained by the time she was two and a half years old.

“We had the privilege of being Harmony’s foster parents ... At two and a half, going on three she was potty trained,” Ms Raftery said. “She wanted to be like the bigger kids in our house. So she would tell us, she pretty much potty trained herself.”

Ms Raftery cared for Harmony for several periods during her first four years of life as the little girl was frequently removed from her mother, who had a substance abuse problem. Ms Raftery said that Harmony would call her “momma,” and say “dadda” to her husband.

Doctors had initially said that Harmony was legally blind in both eyes, had issues with her brain, and was not expected to live past seven months.

“However I noticed that when I would feed her, she would track me with one of her eyes,” Ms Raftery said. “She was very sweet, very happy. She was very social and loved to be around people. Wherever she went, she would leave people happy.”

Harmony was “meeting every benchmark” and thriving with the help of a dedicated team of doctors while she lived with the Rafterys.

Mr Brooks also claimed that it was Kayla Montgomery who last saw the little girl alive. Mr Brooks went on to say that Kayla Montgomery had created a web of lies to put the blame on her husband and that Adam Montgomery had merely agreed to destroy evidence to “protect” his wife and keep custody of their young children.

“He’s not innocent here. He and Kayla moved the body to keep it hidden. You should find him guilty on those charges,” Mr Brooks told jurors. “Adam Montgomery did not kill Harmony ... Kayla Montgomery was the last person to see Harmony alive and knows how Harmony died.”

While the family was living in their car, Montgomery was doing odd jobs in order to earn quick money, Mr Brooks claimed.

It was during one of those instances in which Kayla Montgomery was left alone with the children in the car that Harmony died, Mr Brooks alleged.

The state argued that Kayla Montgomery didn’t come forward with information sooner because she was being abused and “terrorised” by her husband.

“Harmony did not die in that intersection you saw yesterday,” Mr Brooks told the court. “Both Adam Montgomery and Kayla found Harmony’s body in the middle of the night after he returned from work at Colonial Village Aparments.”

The defence said Kayla Montgomery did not tell Adam Montgomery how Harmony died, but that he went on with a plan to destroy Harmony’s remains in order to “protect” his family. The couple then put off the decision to dispose of the body because they didn’t know what to do, Mr Brooks said.

During opening statements, the defence introduced a prison letter allegedly written by Kayla Montgomery after she was arrested on theft charges for collecting welfare benefits for the missing child between December 2019 and June 2021.

In the letter, she allegedly wrote the things she wanted in exchange for “betraying Adam.”

Among the things she reportedly requested were “immunity from everything, all charges she was facing ... maybe ankle bracelet, or probation or drug rehab, kids in my life, not lose custody and have kids live with me.”

The prosecution had previously suggested during their opening statements that Harmony died after her father repeatedly hit her in the head because she had soiled herself. The state argued that Kayla Montgomery didn’t come forward with information sooner because she was being abused and “terrorised” by her husband.

On Friday, defence attorney Caroline Smith read the letter out loud. Among other demands, Kayla wrote that she wanted to see Montgomery “one last time, kiss him, and maybe make love to him,” Ms Smith said — casting doubt on the prosecution’s argument that Kayla initially lied to officials because she was being threatened by Montgomery.

“What you didn’t write was protection from Adam, what you didn’t write was that you were afraid of Adam,” Ms Smith asked. “You just wanted to be with him before you, as you put it, betray him, right?”

“I wasn’t thinking about that .... yes,” Kayla answered.

Kayla Montgomery, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison last year over perjury charges, is expected to be the prosecution’s strongest witness.

The Montgomerys’ dealer took food stamps as a form of payment for drugs.

As a result, Kayla Montgomery said, the whole family found themselves having to eat baby food.

“Who was eating baby food while you were living in that car?” the prosecutor asked.

“All of us,” Kayla Montgomery said as she broke down in tears. “Myself, and the boys and Harmony.”

Kayla Montgomery said that after Montgomery hit Harmony to death, the family drove to a Burger King. She fed her two young sons and placed a sandwich on Harmony’s lap without realising she was dead.

“After the defendant repeatedly struck Harmony. After he put the blanket over her. After she moaned. After the strange crying moaning stopped. After you did drugs and after the car died, you thought she was sleeping under that blanket,” the prosecutor said.

“Why did you think that she may be sleeping after Adam repeatedly struck her?”

“Because she would usually just go to sleep after,” Kayla Montgomery answered.