The stepmother of the murdered five-year-old girl who vanished in 2019 and was presumed dead has been jailed for at least one year and a half for perjury.
32-year-old Kayla Montgomery pleaded guilty to two charges claiming she lied about going to work at a donut shop on November 30, 2019 – the day she said she last saw Harmony Montgomery, 5.
She agreed to work to cooperate with prosecutors who have charged the girl’s father, Adam Montgomery, with second-degree murder.
In exchange for the agreement, prosecutors dropped charges that the stepmother lied to state health officials about having Harmony in her care to claim welfare benefits.
Montgomery indicated that she understood the details of the plea agreement but did not speak during the hearing in Hillsborough County Superior Court.
The 32-year-old was sentenced to 3 and a half to 7 years in jail, with one and a half years suspended and given as credit for the time she already served.
It was only in November 2021 when a search for Harmony was launched after her biological mother, Crystal Renee Sorey, reported her missing.
In August, police said that they believed Harmony was killed in early December 2019.
The girl’s father was charged in October – nearly three years after she disappeared – with murder by repeatedly hitting the child in the head, officers allege.
He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and falsifying physical evidence.
According to court records, it was his wife, Kayla, who told authorities that he had murdered his daughter.
Mr. Montgomery also faces charges of altering, concealing, destroying or removing the child’s body between December 7, 2019, and March 4, 2020, and for tampering with a witness.
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