Adam Montgomery’s Lawyers Switched Sides — and It Saved His Appeal
Adam Montgomery’s defense team asked for both charges — murder and assault — to be tried together. Then they tried to undo it. The trial judge said no. The New Hampshire Supreme Court said yes. And the Adam Montgomery murder conviction in the Harmony Montgomery case is now reversed.
The ruling hinges on a concept the audience deserves to hear explained by someone who has actually litigated it: prejudicial joinder. When the overwhelming assault evidence — multiple witnesses, documented bruises, no dispute — sat alongside a murder charge that depended almost entirely on Kayla Montgomery’s testimony, the court found the jury couldn’t fairly evaluate the weaker case on its own merits.
Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta (Defense Diaries) joins Tony Brueski to walk through the mechanics of how this conviction fell apart. The irony at the center: the defense’s initial request created the structural flaw their appeal exploited. Whether that’s strategy or accident, Bob’s answer tells you everything about how the defense bar actually works.
Also covered: whether the trial judge should have granted severance, what a unanimous five-justice reversal signals about how clear-cut this was, and the single most important thing people misunderstand about a murder conviction being overturned. Montgomery remains in prison on other charges. The state plans to retry. But the conviction that was supposed to speak for five-year-old Harmony is gone. Tony Brueski and Bob Motta.
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Disclaimer:
This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
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