Harmony Montgomery’s Murder Conviction Is Gone!!

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is The Big Breakdown, a long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers Podcast and True Crime Today.
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski. Here now, Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:16)
Well, this is a case I hope we never have to talk about again. But we do, because a jury in Manchester, New Hampshire looked at evidence in the case of Adam Montgomery. They heard the testimony, they sat through the forensic details. The timelines, the photographs, and they came back unanimously guilty. Second degree murder, Adam Montgomery beat his five-year-old daughter Harmony to death in December of 2019 That verdict came in February of 2024 The New Hampshire Supreme Court, well, in their infinite wisdom, has revised that murder conviction in a unanimous decision. And if that sentence alone doesn't make your stomach turn, hold on, because the reason they got overturned has nothing to do with whether Adam Montgomery actually did this to his daughter. It has everything to do with how the trial was run. It matters, cross your t's, dot your i's, kids.
Because not doing the work correctly, or if another court determines you didn't do it correctly, there are repercussions. Look at Alex Murdaugh. And now the monster that literally hauled his daughter's body around in a duffel bag and still won't tell anybody where it is.
Well, now according to that court, he is not a murderer.
Harmony Montgomery's body has never been found. Adam Montgomery knows where she is. At his sentencing, prosecutors offered to cut years off his sentence. All he had to do was tell them where he put his daughter's remains. And he sat there in silence like the douche that he is. And the system that was supposed to deliver justice for this little girl has handed him a procedural win. Prison justice still ain't working yet, now is it? Hmm, hmm!
There's something about how this appeal even exists that really should make you furious. Because the legal maneuver that brought this conviction down to Adam Montgomery's own defense team originally asked for it, and we're going to get to that. But first, I want to be clear about who Adam Montgomery is. Because if you're not familiar with this case, and maybe you aren't, this is this all a lot of the drama here happened several years ago. That's why I was hoping this was done.
Because when the legal language starts flying, Joinder, severance, procedural evidence, it's easy to lose sight of the man at the center of it. So let's not. And we're going to try and translate this for you. So it makes a lot more sense because the legalese is like, huh? Why? Adam Montgomery has 21 entries in his New Hampshire criminal history alone. At 18 years old, he stabbed another teenager and shoved him out of a moving car over a drug deal gone wrong. He was sentenced to four years for that because in New Hampshire, no big deal. He served 383 days, like I said, because they're no big deal. He's a suspect in the unsolved 2008 killing of Darlin Guzman in Lynn, Massachusetts. A 28 year old computer repairman shot to death in a parking lot outside a convenience store. Montgomery has never been charged in that case. It remains open. And in 2014, he was charged with shooting a man in the face in Haverhill, Massachusetts after crossing the state line to buy drugs. Governor Chris Sunuru called him, and this is a direct quote, a monstrous drug dealer with previous convictions, including shooting someone in the head and a separate armed attack on two women in Massachusetts. That's who Adam Montgomery is, convicted felon, known drug user, a man with a documented history of violence stretching back to his teenage years and touching two states. In February 2019, a Massachusetts juvenile court judge looked at all of it, every arrest, every conviction, every violent incident, and decided Adam Montgomery was not an unfit parent. No, no. Judge Mark Newman, by the way, is his name. Judge Mark Newman awarded him sole custody of five-year-old Harmony. After all that, said, you go be dad. You go just change your ways. I'm sure nothing bad will ever happen here. A little girl with glasses who liked M&Ms, a child who had been living safely with a foster family, who had a mother fighting to get clean and to get her back. The court moved so fast, it didn't even wait for the required home study to be completed. Massachusetts DCF had asked New Hampshire to conduct one before it was finished. The judge placed Harmony in Adam Montgomery's care. In my opinion, I think the judge should be placed in Adam Montgomery's care.