MANCHESTER, NH – Adam Montgomery is asking a judge to continue his trial because one of his attorneys has taken a non-lawyer job with the New Hampshire Public Defender.
Jury selection is set to begin on Nov. 21 but Public Defender Caroline Smith, in her motion filed Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, asked for the continuance to find new co-counsel and for that attorney to prepare for trial. The state is requesting an immediate hearing.
The state alleges that Adam Montgomery killed his daughter, 5-year-old Harmony, in December 2019. He is charged with second-degree murder, falsifying physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and tampering with a witness or informant.
Authorities didn’t know of the child’s disappearance until late 2021 after her mother, Crystal Sorey, who had been in and out of recovery for addiction, reported she hadn’t seen her daughter since 2019. Police believe Montgomery murdered her in December 2019.
Montgomery denies killing his daughter and in August, when he was sentenced to 32 1/2 to 75 years in state prison on unrelated stolen gun charges, he told the judge he didn’t kill her and that he refutes “those offensive claims.”
Smith, in her motion, also said she will be in trial in another homicide case for most of the month of October and “will not be able to move this case forward while in trial.”
She said Montgomery will waive his speedy trial right.
State prosecutors are aware of the request and are asking for an immediate hearing, in person or via Webex, according to Smith’s motion.