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Montana newlywed Jordan Linn Graham to plead guilty in husband’s murder

Posted at 4:29 PM, Dec 12, 2013
and last updated 2013-12-12 16:33:59-05

MISSOULA, Montana (CNN) — In a plea deal reached between the prosecution and defense, newlywed Jordan Linn Graham, accused of pushing her husband over a Montana cliff, has agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for waiving a first-degree murder charge and a lying to investigators charge, the prosecutor said Thursday in court.

Woman allegedly pushes husband off cliff to his death

Cody Johnson

The deal was announced after the prosecution and defense rested their cases but before any closing arguments were made. There was a courtroom break after the defense rested.

When the trial resumed, the judge said there were new developments, and the prosecution announced a deal had been made.

The jury was not in the room when the deal was announced.

Graham allegedly killed Cody Johnson, her husband of eight days, by pushing him over a cliff in Glacier National Park in July.

Prosecutors contended that Graham, 21, was having serious second thoughts about her marriage before her husband’s death and willfully lied to police after it.

But her defense lawyers argued that the death plunge was an accident resulting from an argument. Graham initially lied to police, they said, because she was afraid she wouldn’t be allowed to explain what happened on the cliff’s edge.

Her husband disappeared July 7. Four days later, the FBI said, Graham led friends and relatives to a popular spot in the park, where they found Johnson’s body.

Graham at first maintained that she had simply speculated Johnson, 25, might have gone there. But an FBI agent said that she changed her story when she was shown a surveillance photo of the couple entering the park together.