Adam Montgomery appeals armed career criminal, gun convictions

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Adam Montgomery, who will be tried in November on charges he murdered his 5-year-old daughter, is appealing his conviction in a separate case involving stolen guns.

Montgomery, 32, filed the appeal on Monday.  He is also asking a three-member board of judicial officials to review his 32½ to 75-year sentence on convictions of two counts each of being an armed career criminal, receiving stolen property involving a stolen AR-15 rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun in 2019, and two theft counts.  He was found guilty in June after a four-day trial and was sentenced by Judge Amy Messer in August.

In his appeal, Montgomery raised four issues concerning whether Messer erred in:

• denying defendant’s Motion to Preclude Testimony of Kayla Montgomery, his estranged wife.
• in permitting Kimberly Frain to testify about rumors the defendant stole the guns.
• in refusing to strike portions of the ATM video referencing character evidence.
• in permitting testimony regarding the defendant’s phone number being included in the contact list of John Sargent.

Twenty days after the guns were stolen from the Frain home in Manchester, police arrested Sargent, 40, of Manchester, for selling fentanyl and methamphetamine.  Sargent is serving a 13-year sentence in federal prison.

When he was arrested, police recovered the Stag Arms AR-15 that was stolen from the Frains.

In Sargent’s cell phone, they found Adam Montgomery’s contact information.

When he was sentenced in August in Hillsborough County Superior Court North, Montgomery told the judge he did not kill Harmony and that he looked “forward to my upcoming trial to refute those offensive claims.”

The murder trial is set for November. He also has two other cases pending, both charging him again with being an armed career criminal and being a felon in possession of a dangerous weapon.