Kayla Montgomery, the stepmother of a New Hampshire girl who is presumed dead after vanishing years ago, has agreed to plead guilty to unrelated charges and agreed to work with prosecutors who have charged her husband, the child’s father, for her murder, court papers show.
Court papers filed in New Hampshire’s Hillsborough County Superior Court on Wednesday detail the 32-year-old’s plan to plead guilty to charges accusing her of lying to a grand jury regarding a past job from 2019. Specifically, prosecutors alleged she gave false information about the time of a work shift and the location of her job.
In return for the guilty plea, prosecutors have said they would drop the charges that she possessed stolen guns and that she lied to the state about caring for Harmony Montgomery, the 5-year-old who vanished in 2019, to receive welfare checks. Kayla allegedly later told police Harmony's father was behind the girl's death.
HARMONY MONTGOMERY MURDER: MISSING NH GIRL'S STEPMOTHER TOLD DETECTIVES FATHER KILLED 5-YEAR-OLD
Kayla Montgomery’s plea deal must first be accepted by a judge. Prosecutors have asked that she be sentenced to two years in prison. She is expected to appear in court on Friday for an official plea hearing and sentencing.
MISSING HARMONY MONTGOMERY: TIMELINE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE GIRL'S DISAPPEARANCE
Harmony was believed to have last been seen with her father and stepmother sometime between November and December 2019.
Authorities did not know until 2021 that she was even missing. Her father, Adam Montgomery, has since been charged with murder, abuse of a corpse and falsifying evidence. He pleaded not guilty.
Adam Montgomery has a history of drug use, as well as prior violent arrests, including for allegedly shooting a man in the face in 2014 during an attempted drug robbery.
