Father sentenced to 45 years to life in prison for the killing of his 5-year-old daughter Harmony Montgomery
CNN
The New Hampshire man convicted of murdering his 5-year-old daughter Harmony Montgomery was sentenced Thursday to 45 years to life in prison in a case that spurred an investigation into the actions of the child protective services system and rattled relations between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire man convicted of murdering his 5-year-old daughter Harmony Montgomery was sentenced Thursday to 45 years to life in prison in a case that spurred an investigation into the actions of the child protective services system and rattled relations between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Adam Montgomery was found guilty in February of second-degree murder in the 2019 death of his daughter Harmony, who was reported missing in 2021. He was also found guilty of second-degree assault, witness tampering, falsifying physical evidence and abuse of a corpse, according to court documents. He was sentenced to 45 years to life for the murder charge, 4 to 8 years for assault, 3.5 to 7 years for witness tampering, and 3.5 to 7 years for falsifying evidence. He also received a 12-month suspended sentence for abuse of a corpse. The charges will be served consecutively, meaning one after the other, for a total minimum of 56 years in prison, the judge ruled. The sentencing comes five years after a Massachusetts judge placed Harmony, who had cycled in and out of foster care as a child, in Montgomery’s custody in New Hampshire – a decision that has come under intense scrutiny. Her mother last spoke to Harmony in spring of 2019 in a FaceTime call but then was unable to reach her. According to the prosecution’s sentencing memo, Montgomery beat Harmony to death on December 7, 2019, and then engaged in the “transportation and consolidation of her body over three months” before disposing of her corpse on March 4, 2020. He then lied about her whereabouts for more than two years, according to prosecutors. In 2022, the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate wrote a 101-page report on Harmony’s case and found state officials prioritized Harmony’s parents’ rights over the girl’s well-being.
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