Newlywed's brother testifies in Glacier Park murder trial

The 16-year-old brother of the Kalispell woman accused of killing her newlywed husband by pushing him off a cliff in Glacier National Park on July 7 told jurors Tuesday, Dec. 10, that he was angry at his sister for not telling the truth about what happened.

The murder trial of Jordan Graham, 22, began in federal court in Missoula with jury selection on Monday, Dec. 9. Eight men and six women were selected.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy told prosecution and defense attorneys he wanted the trial completed by Friday, Dec. 13, because he has another trial scheduled for the following week.

Graham cried while her brother, Michael Rutledge, of Kalispell, testified that he was with her on July 11 when she led authorities to the site below the Loop Trail to Granite Park Chalet where the body of Cody Johnson, 25, was found. The couple had been married eight days.

Rutledge said his sister told him to tell others that Glacier Park rangers had found Johnson’s body. He also testified that it seemed odd that Graham took people to the same location two nights in a row while the search for her newlywed husband was still going on.

“She could have told us the truth,” Rutledge testified, sobbing. “She told one lie, was asked to tell the truth, and she said it again. And she had to keep adding more lies to cover it up. And that’s maybe why I was mad.”

Rutledge testified that he was close to his sister and Johnson. He also said he was with his sister on July 10 when they went with their mother and two friends to The Loop on the Going-to-the-Sun Road  to look for Johnson’s body, but it was too dark to see.

They returned the next day, and Rutledge told jurors he wondered why they had gone back to the same place.

“Why aren’t we going to other spots? This park is huge,” Rutledge said he recalled thinking. “But I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want anyone to be upset with me.”

Graham said she couldn’t see anything from the road, but she had a feeling, Rutledge said. The others watched as Graham climbed over a retaining wall and made her way down a treacherous rocky slope. She walked along the ledge for a while then shouted that she spotted a body in a ravine, Rutledge said.

“When Jordan claimed she saw Cody, I was in disbelief, so I went down myself,” he said.

Rutledge said he saw the body and “lost it.” He said he then climbed back up to the road and sat at the edge of the rocks while his sister and a friend went to report the finding to park rangers, who prosecutors said were surprised that she had been able to find the body from that location.

Johnson was reported missing on Monday, July 8, when he didn’t show up for work at Nomad Global Communications, in Columbia Falls. Graham is accused of providing law enforcement authorities with false statements about what happened to her husband. Graham told a Glacier Park ranger on July 11 where Johnson’s body was, which the ranger thought was odd considering how many people were looking for him.

Kimberly Martinez, who was matron of honor at the couple’s June 29 wedding, testified on Monday about dozens of text messages she exchanged with Graham prior to Johnson’s death. Graham said in the text messages that she didn’t want to have sex with Johnson and was afraid of his temper.

“I just know he is gonna wanna do stuff I’m not wanting to,” Graham said in one text to Martinez. When Martinez suggested Graham tell her husband she didn’t want to have sex, Graham replied, “I feel like it’s my job to make him happy, even if I’m miserable.”

In addition to the text messages in which Graham expressed her unhappiness in her new marriage, Martinez testified about meeting with Graham early in the morning the day after Johnson’s death and found Graham seemed nervous.

After she heard what Graham had said to her stepfather about Johnson’s disappearance, Martinez told law enforcement officials she felt Graham knew more about what had happened.

Martinez continued her testimony on Tuesday. She told jurors that Graham had told her she had followed a dark-colored vehicle to Hungry Horse before losing it. In her first talks with law enforcement, Graham had said the last time she saw her husband was when he left with friends in a dark-colored vehicle heading for Glacier Park.

It was July 16, nine days after Johnson’s death, that Graham admitted to being with her husband on Sunday, July 7, and accidentally pushing her husband off a cliff along the Loop Trail. She said it happened during an argument about their marriage.

Also on Tuesday, prosecutors played a video recording of an interview of Graham by Kalispell police officers. Prosecutors noted inconsistent statements Graham made about her husband’s whereabouts in the interview.

In his opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kris McLean told the court about text messages Graham made from her vehicle as she made her way home after pushing Johnson off the cliff.

Instead of calling for help or stopping for assistance, McLean said, Graham texted Martinez about her marriage concerns and texted another friend about dance moves they would perform at a Hawaiian-themed church party.