Kayla Montgomery begins serving time after pleading guilty to perjury

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Kayla Montgomery during proceedings at Hillsborough Superior Court, Thursday, May 5, 2022, in Mancheste AP Photo File /Charles Krupa, Pool)

MANCHESTER, NH – Kayla Montgomery, stepmom to murdered 5-year-old Harmony Montgomery, on Friday began serving a state prison sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of perjury.

Montgomery, 32, of Manchester, entered the guilty pleas in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District in exchange for a sentence of 3 ½ to 7 years in prison, with 1 ½ years suspended.

That perjury count accused her of lying to a Grand Jury investigating the disappearance of Harmony, who investigators now say is a homicide victim. Montgomery will receive credit for 197 days of pre-trial confinement.  It means she has about 1 ½ years left to serve, as long as she is of good behavior. On the second perjury charge, she was given a 3 ½ to 7-year suspended sentence.

Jesse O’Neill, senior assistant New Hampshire Attorney General, said Montgomery told the Grand Jury on May 20, 2022 that Adam Montgomery, who is charged with killing his daughter, dropped her off at Dunkin’ Donuts on Eddy Road on Nov. 30, 2019 for her 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift. She said Harmony and their two children were with them.

When he picked her up that afternoon, she said, only their two children were in the car. Adam, she said, told her he dropped off Harmony with her mother.

Associate NH Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin, who was questioning her before the Grand Jury, told Montgomery that investigators had checked with Dunkin’ Donuts and had her work records.

O’Neill said Strelzin told Montgomery to really think about what she was saying, that she could be charged with perjury. 

 At that point, O’Neill said Montgomery testified that on Nov. 30, 2019, she was working at Dunkin’ Donuts in Goffstown.  Police later checked with the owners of the three Dunkin’ Donuts in Goffstown and learned Montgomery had been employed at only one of them – on Tower Lane – and that she had worked there from Aug. 4, 2019 to Sept. 11, 2019.

State employment records, he said, showed the last time she worked at a Dunkin’ Donuts was on Nov. 23, 2019 on Bell Avenue in Hooksett.

Montgomery also was facing charges of welfare fraud and theft, for receiving food stamps for Harmony when the child was dead, and charges concerning stolen guns.  Those charges, as part of the plea agreement, were nol prossed.

Defense Attorney Paul Garrity said going forward, Montgomery will testify, if called, in cases involving her estranged husband, Adam, who is charged with second-degree murder in his daughter’s death.  He is accused of repeatedly punching the child in the head, killing her.

Her body has not been found.

Investigators said Kayla Montgomery, when interviewed in the stolen weapons case involving Adam, told them her husband killed Harmony.

Adam Montgomery is also charged with being an armed career criminal which, upon conviction, carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in state prison and up to 40 years.

He also is accused of second-degree assault for blackening Harmony’s eye in the summer of 2019.


 

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Pat Grossmith

Pat Grossmith is a freelance reporter.