Kayla Montgomery took the stand on Friday as the key witness for the state in the trial against her estranged husband and accused child killer, Adam Montgomery.
Kayla told the jury at New Hampshire’s Hillsborough County Court that she saw 5-year-old Harmony’s lifeless body in the back seat of the car, following physical abuse brought about by the defendant.
Rather than calling 911, she said Adam Montgomery hid the child’s body.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the defendant is accused of murdering Harmony by repeatedly striking her in the head with a closed fist. Although she hasn’t been located, officials declared her deceased, following information Kayla provided investigators.
The incident reportedly happened on December 7, 2019, while Harmony, the defendant, Kayla, and the couple’s other children lived in a Chrysler Sebring after an apartment eviction. According to Kayla, they typically parked the car in the Colonial Apartments parking lot in Manchester when they weren’t driving.
While Montgomery drove the vehicle on the day in question, he allegedly turned his body and repeatedly struck Harmony’s face and head while she sat in the rear passenger side. He continued to hit her until he became concerned after the final blow, Kayla said, according to an arrest affidavit.
On Thursday, prosecutor Christopher Knowles said during opening statements that Montgomery placed a fast food order after beating his daughter, and then showed no concern for the victim as he ate his meal.
“He pulled into that parking lot at Burger King and he ordered his food. He ordered his food and he ate. He didn’t stop to check on Harmony,” Knowles said. “He didn’t look back at her. He didn’t show any concern for this innocent little girl, the child he had just eaten. He ordered his food, and he ate. And he didn’t stop.”
Kayla confirmed to the court Friday that she was with Montgomery as they drove to Burger King. Afterward, they went to buy crack cocaine and got high.
“I was scared,” she said through tears.
During questioning by the prosecution, Kayla testified that Montgomery first hid a bag containing Harmony’s body in a snowbank near dumpsters, close to the Colonial Village apartments.
Over the next few months, Montgomery moved Harmony’s body to various locations, according to Kayla’s testimony. The family then moved into an apartment with Adam Montgomery’s mother, where he kept Harmony’s body in a duffel bag, stuffed inside a cooler.
Adam Montgomery placed the cooler in the common hallway of the apartment building and left it there until the end of the year. The family eventually left the apartment and stayed temporarily in a transition center, while bringing the duffel bag with them.
Adam Montgomery allegedly stuffed the duffel bag inside a ceiling vent at the transition center.
“You could smell a horrible smell that was coming through the vents,” Kayla testified.
Kayla admitted she took the bag (with Harmony’s body still inside) to a Portland Pie Company restaurant and stuffed it inside a freezer. Kayla said she did so at the request of the defendant.
They later moved to a residence off Union Street in Manchester, where Adam Montgomery placed Harmony’s body in their refrigerator. Kayla recounted that he discussed the possibility of using a hand saw and a NutriBullet blender to dispose of Harmony’s remains.
Montgomery later spent hours inside a hot shower with the child’s body, in an attempt to thaw her from the freezing. Kayla admitted that she helped him by cutting Harmony’s clothes off with a pair of scissors. The suspect then disposed of the body but never told Kayla where he took it.
“He said that he wanted to get rid of her body soon because he was scared that if anything ever happened, he was scared of what would happen to him, and me, and the kids,” she said.
Montgomery’s lawyers grilled Kayla on her testimony — and her previous testimony to a grand jury. She is serving an 18 month sentence after pleading guilty to perjury during that testimony.
“Only she knows the truth,” public defender James T. Brooks told the jury on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. “And only she has benefitted from all the lies she has told.”
After prosecutors asked Kayla look at the jurors when she told them she did not kill Harmony, defense attorney Caroline Smith asked if she did the same during the grand jury testimony when she said she didn’t know what happened to Harmony.
“So, looking at jurors while you’re lying doesn’t change the lie, right?” Smith asked.
“Right,” Kayla replied.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast. Listen to a previous episode on the case below.
[Feature Photo: Adam and Harmony Montgomery/Police Handout; Facebook]
