In the weeks before Harmony Montgomery was allegedly murdered by her father, the 5-year-old and her siblings were living in “chaos” and surrounded by drugs and guns, her stepmother testified on Monday.
“It was just chaos in that house at that time,” Kayla Montgomery told jurors Monday. “I didn’t want the guns in the house.”
The bombshell testimony came in the second week of Adam Montgomery’s gun-theft trial in New Hampshire, where he pleaded not guilty to several weapons charges. Montgomery is also facing separate charges in connection with Harmony’s December 2019 death—about two years before she was reported missing in a case that has garnered national headlines. The 5-year-old has never been found and Montgomery is expected to go to trial for her death in November.
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Prosecutors allege ex-convict Montgomery stole two firearms and then tried to sell them between Sept. 29, 2019, and Oct. 3, 2019. And while prosecutors say the weapons don’t have any connection with Harmony’s murder, Montgomery’s estranged wife provided new details about how his alleged criminal activity affected their home and their relationship.
Kayla Montgomery pleaded guilty last November to two felony counts of perjury after lying about her whereabouts the day Harmony went missing. Her testimony for the prosecution on Monday is part of her plea deal.
Wiping away tears on the stand, she told jurors that until November 2019, she was working morning shifts at Dunkin Donuts and her estranged husband would take care of the kids. She said she would take over parenting responsibilities in the afternoon while he would “leave some nights because we were using drugs.”
“Getting high, using heroin, and crack, and weed,” Kayla Montgomery said.
She added that sometimes people would stop by the house to sell drugs—including one instance after Adam Montgomery had stolen the two firearms. During that occasion, she testified, her estranged husband tried to sell the stolen firearms either in exchange for drugs or for money.
“It was a lot of people going in and out and taking care of the kids at the same time. I don’t even know,” she said, describing the time period in their New Hampshire house as “chaos.”
Adam Montgomery’s defense, however, insisted to jurors that their client was innocent and pointed the finger at another possible suspect during opening statements last week.
Harmony was last seen around Nov. 28, after her dad and Kayla Montgomery were evicted from their home. Harmony allegedly died after being repeatedly “struck” in the head with a closed fist on or around Dec. 7, 2019, prosecutors say. Afterward, Adam Montgomery allegedly “removed, concealed, or destroyed” his daughter’s body.
Police say they were first made aware of Harmony’s disappearance when her biological mother, Crystal Sorey, reported her daughter “was missing and that she hadn’t seen [her] in over six months.” In a June 2022 interview in connection with the weapons case, Kayla Montgomery told investigators that Adam Montgomery had murdered Harmony.
“Kayla also said that [Adam Montgomery] had encouraged her on multiple occasions to lie to police about Harmony’s whereabouts, basically giving Kayla a ‘cover story’ and telling her that as long as she stuck to the cover story everything would be OK,” the October 2022 motion added.
