Convicted child killer Adam Montgomery chose to take a lengthy prison sentence over disclosing where he hid the body of his slain daughter, Harmony Montgomery.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, a New Hampshire judge sentenced Montgomery to 56 years to life in prison on Thursday, following a murder conviction in connection with his missing but presumed dead 5-year-old daughter.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati offered Montgomery the chance of a significantly reduced sentence in exchange for him telling where he hid Harmony’s body.
Montgomery declined.
“Since that offer has been rejected your honor, that is yet another reason why the minimum should not apply,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati said.
“What I just said was not a stunt, it was not a theatrical event. I stated, in closing arguments, that there are moments in life when we are tested; where our failure or our success lies in whether we do the right thing at that moment in time. And time and time again — and about 30 seconds ago — the defendant chose again to be heartless, and immoral, and selfish and unapologetic.”
Montgomery, who refused to attend his murder trial, claimed innocence and tried to pin the blame on his estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, after he gained custody of Harmony from her mother, Crystal Sorey.
Throughout the two-week trial, prosecutors presented evidence that showed Montgomery beat Harmony, took opioids, and then ordered food at Burger King as Harmony succumbed to her injuries in the back seat of his car.
Kayla testified that Montgomery first hid a bag containing Harmony’s body in a snowbank near dumpsters, close to the Colonial Village apartments in Manchester.
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 then 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.
Upon realizing her death, Montgomery concealed her body for months. He stuffed her into a duffel bag and then a cooler. He later rented a U-Haul truck and discarded the victim’s body somewhere outside of Boston.
For nearly two years after, he said nothing and denied harming her, claiming that he returned Harmony to her biological mother.
“She had a life worth living,” Sorey said.
“Unlike your own. And it bothered you to your core that she was nothing like you and everything like me. Beautiful inside and out. Funny. Smart. Sassy. Loving. And, most of all, kind. She wasn’t a coward like you. And I’ll be forever grateful for that. You’re a coward who has to be in charge of everything and everyone around you.
“Insecure. And paranoid — the list goes on. She was none of those things. She lit up a room when she walked in. She made a mark wherever she went. And you couldn’t stand it.”
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[Feature Photo: Adam and Harmony Montgomery/Police Handout; Facebook]
