Stepmom Of Missing New Hampshire Girl Offered Welfare Theft Charge Plea Deal: Report

MANCHESTER, NH — The stepmother of a New Hampshire girl, missing since October 2019, who faces a felony theft charge, has been offered a plea deal, according to a report in the Boston Herald.

According to an indictment, Kayla Montgomery, 31, faces a felony theft charge due to collecting welfare benefits for more than a year and a half when Harmony Montgomery, 7, was not living with her. Kayla Montgomery was originally charged with three counts of public welfare fraud-prohibited act and a felony theft charge. Later, the charges were rolled into a single theft charge. Kayla Montgomery was accused by the state of obtaining $2,450 in food stamps for Harmony Montgomery between December 2019 and June 2021.

The Herald did not cite the source of information about the deal and did not offer details of the agreement.

In an email, Michael Garrity, the public information officer for the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, the prosecutors of the case, said, “due to the Rule of Professional Conduct (R3.6), we are not allowed to confirm or deny whether a plea has been offered in any pending criminal case.”

Court personnel could also not confirm the plea deal and no new documents are available in the case.

The report stated the deal offer was not disclosed at a dispositional conference held Thursday in Hillsborough County Superior Court North — a “counsel only” procedural hearing where the defendant did not appear and where portions of the proceedings might be sealed, press outlets were told before the hearing. Non-case parties were also warned they would be moved to the lobby during any bench conferences or confidential portions of the proceedings.

The report stated close to 3,500 pages of material and between 70 to 80 “media discs” were involved with the case. Kayla Montgomery is due back in superior court on June 9 for a status hearing to see if the plea deal would be accepted, the report stated.

The case against Kayla Montgomery was built while investigators searched for the missing girl. She was indicted on the charge in March.

The girl’s father, Adam Montgomery, 32, who has been held on a felony assault charge, accused of striking his daughter, was also charged this week with six more felony counts connected to firearm theft accusations from the same period when Harmony Montgomery was last seen — although investigators say the gun thefts were not connected to the missing girl case.

Read the full report on the Boston Herald website.

Harmony Montgomery, who was was 5 when she was last seen, is white, about 4 feet tall, and weighs around 50 pounds. She has blonde hair, blue eyes, and should be wearing glasses. Harmony Montgomery is also blind in one eye.

Anyone with information regarding her disappearance or current whereabouts is asked to call the Manchester Police Department's 24-hour Harmony Montgomery tip line at 603-203-6060.

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