Key facts
- The New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed Adam Montgomery's second-degree murder conviction.
- The court ruled that combining the murder charge with a lesser assault charge prejudiced his right to a fair trial.
- Harmony Montgomery, his 5-year-old daughter, has been missing since 2019 and her body has never been found.
- Montgomery was sentenced to a minimum of 56 years in prison in 2024 for multiple charges, including second-degree murder.
- The murder charge has been sent back to the lower court, while other convictions remain.
- Justices stated there was a significant risk the jury used evidence of the assault to convict him of murder.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has reversed the second-degree murder conviction of Adam Montgomery, who was accused of killing his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery. The court agreed with Montgomery's argument that combining the murder charge with a lesser assault charge prejudiced his right to a fair trial, as the jury may have improperly used evidence of the assault to convict him of murder.
Montgomery was sentenced to a minimum of 56 years in prison in 2024 after being found guilty of second-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, falsifying evidence, witness tampering, and assault. The second-degree murder conviction accounted for 45 years of that sentence, which was imposed on top of an earlier 32.5-year sentence for unrelated gun charges. The Supreme Court's ruling sends the murder charge back to the lower court for further proceedings, while allowing the other convictions to stand.
Police believe Harmony Montgomery was killed in 2019, though her body has never been found and she was not reported missing until nearly two years later. The court's unanimous ruling highlighted the significant risk that the jury could have inferred guilt for the murder based on the evidence of the prior assault.