The state’s top prosecutor has asked the New Hampshire Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to reverse the second-degree murder conviction against Adam Montgomery for the beating death of his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony, saying the evidence presented to the jury was overwhelming.

In a request to reconsider the opinion, Assistant Attorney General Sam Gonyea says the Supreme Court overlooked the role of the jury and “misapprehending the relative strength” of the state’s evidence, including eyewitness testimony and extensive physical evidence.
“The State did not present a circumstantial second-degree murder case; it presented direct eyewitness testimony of the fatal assault,” Gonyea said.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that Judge Amy Messer should have held different trials for a second-degree assault charge and the second-degree murder charge. The jury heard testimony about Montgomery giving Harmony a black eye in July 2019 and the efforts family members took to report the abuse. Harmony was killed in December 2019.

Montgomery, 36, remains behind bars after being sentenced to decades in prison for unrelated gun charges.

The state rejects the court’s argument that the prosecution’s second-degree murder case was “substantially weaker” than the second-degree assault case, in part because the only direct testimony came from Montgomery’s estranged wife, Kayla, who says she witnessed the horrific beatings that led to Harmony’s death. The beatings took place in a car the family was living in at the time, after Harmony wet herself.

“By defining the State’s second-degree murder case as weak because of Kayla’s prior convictions and inconsistent statements, this Court overlooked the fact that the jury heard all this impeachment evidence and still credited her account of the murder on December 7, 2019,” Gonyea said. “It was solely the jury’s province to make that determination with respect to the trial evidence.”

Eyewitness testimony

Gonyea said Kayla Montgomery gave eyewitness testimony to the fatal assault and the state offered extensive physical evidence and testimony to corroborate her account.
In its opinion, the Supreme Court justices said the physical evidence corroborated only the cover-up. The defense had argued Kayla Montgomery caused Harmony’s death.

“When paired with his admissions that he got rid of Harmony because of her bathroom accidents, his statement that he hated Harmony ‘right to his core,’ and his pacing and repeating ‘I f—ed up,’ the State’s evidence of murder was overwhelming,” the Attorney General’s motion states.

The fact that one case is stronger than another does not “constitute prejudice sufficient for reversal,” the state argues.

The AG also argues the Supreme Court’s opinion overlooked proper procedure, which would have looked only at a pretrial ruling to join the cases, not at the actual trial itself.
Montgomery first requested that the charges be heard together, but in the weeks leading up to the trial, Montgomery’s lawyers asked Judge Messer to separate the trials, which was denied.

Montgomery’s lawyer for the appeal, Pamela Phelan, argued that a jury likely wouldn’t have found Montgomery guilty solely on the testimony of his estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, who was charged with perjury and spent 18 months in prison after pleading guilty.

Adam Montgomery was sentenced to 45 years to life on the second-degree murder conviction. He was sentenced to an additional 11 years after he admitted to charges of abuse of a corpse, falsifying physical evidence and witness tampering.

He is also serving 32 years for unrelated firearm convictions.