Adam Montgomery, the father of Harmony Montgomery, has had his murder conviction thrown out by the New Hampshire Supreme Court after the state’s highest court ruled on June 11, 2026 that a crucial trial error denied him a fair hearing on the most serious charge.
Montgomery was convicted in February 2024 of second-degree murder in relation to Harmony’s death, as well as second-degree assault, abuse of a corpse, falsifying physical evidence and witness tampering. He was later sentenced in May 2024 to 56 years to life in prison in the Harmony case, on top of an earlier unrelated gun sentence.
On June 11, however, the New Hampshire Supreme Court overturned the second-degree murder conviction and sent that charge back to the lower court for a new trial. According to CBS News, ‘the court determined that Montgomery did not receive a fair trial because his request to have his murder charge separated from other counts was denied.’
The justices found that the murder allegation should have been tried separately from the second-degree assault charge tied to an earlier incident in July 2019, concluding that combining the two counts created an unacceptable risk that jurors would use the stronger assault evidence to influence their view of the murder accusation.
“As compared to the evidence of multiple disinterested witnesses substantiating the July assault, the evidence of the December 7, 2019 fatal attack is substantially weaker,” the court ruled, as per NBC. “We therefore conclude that this disparity created a significant risk that the jury would rely on the strength of the evidence that the defendant struck the victim in anger in July to conclude that, as Kayla testified, he similarly — and fatally — struck the victim in December.”
Harmony’s body has never been recovered, though investigators believe she was killed in December 2019, nearly two years before she was officially reported missing in late 2021. The case drew national attention after authorities said Adam Montgomery repeatedly lied about the little girl’s whereabouts while her disappearance went undisclosed.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Harmony was fatally beaten by her father in December 2019 while the family was living in a car, and that he later took part in the “transportation and consolidation of her body over three months” before disposing of it.
They also said Adam misled people about where Harmony was for two years, while key testimony from his estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, played a major role in the state’s murder case. The Supreme Court’s ruling did not amount to a finding of innocence; instead, it focused on whether the jury should have heard the murder and assault allegations together.
Despite the murder conviction being overturned, Montgomery will remain behind bars for decades. The murder count accounted for 45 years of the 56-years-to-life sentence imposed in the Harmony case, but he is still serving lengthy prison time on the remaining convictions and on an unrelated stolen firearms case that had already resulted in a minimum sentence of 32 and a half years.
The Supreme Court left intact his convictions for assault, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering, and abuse of a corpse. That means a substantial portion of his prison sentence still stands even as prosecutors prepare to retry the murder charge.
In a statement to PEOPLE, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said: “We are disappointed by the Court’s decision to order a new trial on the second degree murder charge and we plan to pursue a re-trial on that charge.
“Adam Montgomery remains convicted of multiple serious felonies arising from Harmony’s death, as well as separate firearms offenses that were previously upheld on appeal. Montgomery’s total sentence of 43.5 years for these additional charges stands and is not affected by the Court’s decision today.”
“We remain confident in the facts of this case, the evidence presented, and the exceptional work of our prosecutors, investigators, and law enforcement partners. We will continue our efforts to seek justice for Harmony Montgomery and all those who knew and loved her.”
Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, has also continued to pursue accountability in civil court, having filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2025. Prosecutors have indicated they intend to move ahead with a retrial on the second-degree murder charge, ensuring the long-running case over Harmony Montgomery’s death is far from over.