Accused murderer Adam Montgomery has chosen to sit in a Concord prison cell rather than a Manchester courtroom as his estranged wife has described how he fatally beat his 5-year-old daughter to death and disposed of her body.
“I think it hurts the defense by not having a defendant in the courtroom,” Nashua defense lawyer Chuck Keefe, who has no connection to the case, said in an interview Monday.
“When an eyewitness is saying you did it, jurors are going to see how a person reacts to that, especially something this horrible that the witness described,” Keefe said.
Montgomery, who is on trial for the December 2019 death of his daughter Harmony, has not been in court since the first day of jury selection, waiving his right to appear and declining to be transported to court.
Montgomery’s estranged wife, Kayla, testified for the second day Monday. She has denied killing Harmony but said she was with Adam when he killed her. She said he planned to use a NutriBullet blender to break down the girl’s body parts so he wouldn’t get caught.
“For jurors to see how he emotionally reacts to her testimony and her accusations … those things wouldn’t technically be evidence, but something you think that jurors would consider because they’re human beings,” Keefe said.
Last week, Judge Amy Messer told Adam Montgomery outside the jury’s presence that it was “your right to waive your presence (at the trial) and for us to proceed in your absence.”
She told the jury that the defendant has a right to not to be present.
“You are not to speculate on why he is not here this morning and you are not to draw any adverse or negative inference as a result of him not being here. He is not here today, he has the right to be present, but he also has the right to be absent.”
“Your verdict must be based exclusively on the evidence that is presented at trial and the law as will be given to you by the court as part of jury instructions.”
Keefe said he would need to know more about the case before he could say whether he would recommend Adam Montgomery testify.
“There’s only a couple decisions a defendant makes 100% on their own and that is the decision to testify and the decision to plead guilty,” he said. “Obviously, the attorney advises on both of those.”
Last year, Montgomery was convicted on gun charges in a trial at which he didn’t testify. Had he testified, his attorneys might have formed an idea of how well he would do on the witness stand for his murder trial.
“That would be a good test drive,” Keefe said.
Last August, Adam Montgomery denied he killed his daughter before being sentenced to a minimum of 32 years in prison on six felony weapons charges.
“I love my daughter unconditionally and I didn’t kill her,” said Montgomery, standing in an orange jumpsuit and wearing handcuffs while addressing the same judge overseeing his murder trial.
“I didn’t kill my daughter, Harmony, and I look forward to my upcoming trial to refute those offensive claims.” he said.
Asked what challenges prosecutors faced, Keefe said: “There’s obviously one — there’s that there’s no body.”
So prosecutors will use other evidence to try to secure a conviction, he said.
“The pictures and videos they have here describing a beautiful little girl and the manner of her death as described by Kayla is so horrible, I think, all those factors are very emotionally powerful evidence for the jury,” Keefe said.
