Adam Montgomery trial jurors urged not to ‘be fooled’ by accused killer

Judge Messer is now giving instructions to jurors.

“The defendant admitted only to what he had to,” Mr Agati said. “Because he thinks that you are going to be fooled.”

“He thinks if you let him slide on the murder, you’ll let him slide on the other two.”

“He admits what he can’t deny. He denies what he can’t afford to admit.”

“And the only parts of Harmony that are left will be with you in that deliberation room, on that pink toothbrush, and on that part of the ceiling wall, that’s there

“And the other parts of her body. Her torso, her face, her eyes, that smile … only the defendant, as we sit and stand here today, knows where they are.

“And he can’t afford to say where they are, because the evidence contained on them will show that she caused her death, so she won’t get the burial that she deserves.

“What is unreasonable to believe is the defendant’s theory that something happened in the middle of the night and he was not there,” Mr Agati said.

“He said that he was doing his business to get the family out of that car.

“He’s unemployed. He’s got no business. What business have we heard or seen any testimony about?”

“That’s what her protector did to her,” Mr Agati said, quoting Ms Smith’s words, as he showed jurors a picture of Kayla Montgomery’s beaten face.

Mr Agati brought up testimony from Montgomery’s uncle Kevin Montgomery, who told jurors that he saw Harmony with a black eye after she was hit by her father.

Mr Agati asked jurors to remember that Kevin Montgomery did not want to testify against his nephew, but had be subpoenaed.

“You saw it in his face what he remembers the defendant said he did to Harmony,” Mr Agati said.

“If you’re going to quote the defendant, you have to make sure that you’re accurate,” prosecutor Ben Agati tells jurors.

“I apologise in advance, but let’s quote people accurately …

“‘I f***ed up,’ again and again and again. ‘I f****d up.’ His language, that he used … the night that disappeared Harmony’s body to wherever place it is now, where he knows. His words,’ I f****d up.’ Not she, not we, not Kayla. ‘I’. Singular, personal, solo.”

The defence has finished their closing arguments.

Judge Messer said the state will have a chance to deliver their closing arguments when the court returns from a short break.

“Adam did some very very bad things but he did not kill his daughter,” Ms Smith says.

“He did what he did and he got accused of something he did not do.”

“Can you put your trust for one of the most important decisions of your life, in Kayla?” Ms Smith asked jurors. “The police know that she is a liar, the state knows that she is a liar. She was charged with perjury for lying to a grand jury.”

“Pictures of that adorable child in the media,” Ms Smith said while holding a large cardboard with a picture of a grinning Harmony. “In the community. ‘Help us find this girl.’ The media is all over it. It’s the biggest investigation the Manchester Police did and they dedicated time and resources over and over again.

“The emotions had to be running high. And they kept going down the wrong path because people would give them information whether it was they wanted to help them, or as Adam put it in his recording, they wanted their two minutes of fame. Or they wanted something [from the prosecution], like Kayla.”

Ms Smith is pointing out that Harmony was not hidden from the police officer who checked in on the family after they had an accident around the time of the little girl’s death.

Harmony was also not hidden from Montgomery’s friend and drug dealer Anthony Bodero, Ms Smith said.

Kayla Montgomery said during her testimony that Harmony was often kept hidden under a cover to hide her severely bruised body and bloodied face from the beatings.