Last Updated on February 22, 2024
Judge Mark Newman, who granted custody of small child Harmony Montgomery to her father Adam Montgomery, got his nomination to the Essex Juvenile Court in Massachusetts in 2002 from then-acting governor Jane Swift, an establishment Republican who has strongly supported neocon Nikki Haley’s failed 2024 presidential race. Adam Montgomery was convicted Thursday of murder for beating Harmony to death when she was five years old and living in a car with Adam and his wife, who were both addicts. Crystal Sorey reportedly wrote to then-Manchester mayor Joyce Craig, whose office declined to help find Montgomery. Joyce Craig is now running for Governor of New Hampshire as a Democrat. Judge Newman stepped down from the juvenile court later the very same year that he gave Harmony to her killer.
Jane Swift, who nominated the judge, is a big Nikki Haley supporter who offered her advice to people “If you do not want to reelect Donald Trump.”
In 2021, Crystal Sorey reportedly wrote to then-mayor Craig asking for help in locating Harmony, and Sorey reportedly got an email back from Craig’s team “declining” to help the mom, according to NH Journal. The state’s attorney general has been notified of the situation between Sorey and Craig.
Though Harmony’s mother Crystal Sorey grappled with substance addiction issues in the past and Harmony was living in foster care at some points while the mom worked on re-unification efforts, Sorey now claims she has been clean for five years. Judge Newman granted custody to father Adam in 2019 after the court refused to grant Crystal a continuance. She needed a continuance, she says, because she had another court case pertaining to another one of her children at the same time as the hearing. But Judge Newman still went ahead and handed Harmony to the man who ended up killing her.
Mom Crystal Sorey led the charge to try to find Harmony after the girl went missing, as Adam became homeless in New Hampshire. According to testimony from Adam’s wife Kayla Montgomery, Adam beat Harmony to death in the car that they were living in with three children including Harmony. Adam has also pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse, stemming from the fact that he tried to hide Harmony’s remains for an extended period of time in a variety of disturbing storage containers. It is currently unknown where Adam Montgomery disposed of Harmony’s murdered body.
Adam Montgomery declined to even show up in court to face his conviction, as he is already serving time behind bars for other career criminal charges that he recently got convicted on.
Harmony’s mother Crystal Sorey answered reporters’ questions outside the courthouse after Adam’s conviction:
