Jury selection starts Monday for Glacier Park murder trial

Jury selection will begin Monday, Dec. 9, for the murder trial of Jordan Graham, 22, of Kalispell, the woman accused of pushing her newlywed husband off a cliff in Glacier National Park.

Prosecutors have filed a brief stating their intent to call 39 witnesses and introduce 99 exhibits in a trial they say should last five to eight days in federal court in Missoula.

Graham is charged with first degree or second degree murder and making false statements after allegedly pushing Cody Johnson, 25, off a cliff along the Loop Trail to Granite Park on July 7.

Graham’s defense attorneys say she accidentally pushed Johnson off the cliff during an argument, and they have asked U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy to put voluntary manslaughter in the proposed jury verdict form in place of first or second degree murder.

In a recent filing, they also contrasted the differences between Graham and Johnson, who were married eight days before Johnson died.

In their filing, Graham’s attorneys state that Johnson “did not attend church, liked to race cars, drink beer, play softball and hang with his friends, both male and female.” They also said Johnson “loved to drive fast, even described as recklessly, and accumulated many traffic tickets in his short life, including one for driving 120 mph in a 70 mph zone,” and that he once totaled his pickup truck.

Molloy has made some rulings for the trial, including siding with the defense on barring the prosecution from introducing evidence of certain alleged prior acts by Graham. The prosecution had said it wanted to introduce evidence that Graham had previously fabricated allegations of abuse against former boyfriends and made statements in the weeks leading up to her wedding to Johnson that she could murder her mother and stepfather.

Molloy also ruled that certain photographs from Johnson’s autopsy may not be introduced at trial. The prosecution had wanted to use some photographs to help prove a claim that Graham had allegedly blindfolded Johnson before intentionally pushing him of the cliff.