Unusual 'prior act' claims filed in Park murder case
<p>Jordan Graham and Cody Johnson.</p>
Court documents filed Nov. 25 in the murder case against Jordan Graham, 22, of Kalispell, include unusual allegations about prior acts by the newlywed accused of pushing her husband off a cliff in Glacier National Park on July 7.
The two were married eight days before Cody Johnson, 25, fell to his death along the Loop Trail. Graham has admitted pushing her husband off a cliff but claims it was an accident. She faces charges of first-degree murder or second-degree murder and making false statements.
Among the recent filings in federal court in Missoula, prosecutors asked U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy to allow evidence of prior acts by Graham to be introduced in the trial scheduled to begin Dec. 9.
Two of those prior acts include claims Graham allegedly made about being involved in past abusive relationships, and a statement she allegedly made one month before Johnson died in which she said she “could kill her mother and stepfather.”
The Nov. 25 filings also indicate a DNA expert from FBI headquarters was ready to testify about six human hairs found embedded in a cloth found near Johnson’s body at the bottom of the narrow gorge below The Loop switchback on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Federal prosecutors have suggested they intend to prove that Graham blindfolded Johnson before pushing him off the cliff. Judge Molly reacted in disbelief to that theory during a Nov. 15 hearing by saying, “Oh, come on.” Prosecutors had asked Molloy to delay the trial to February so they could finish collecting DNA evidence on the piece of cloth they suspect is the blindfold.
The source of the blindfold theory could be a statement Graham made during an FBI interview on July 17 in which she said Johnson bragged about not being afraid of the cliff, adding, “I could do this with a blindfold on.”
Graham’s public defenders point out that if prosecutors didn’t tell the grand jury about the blindfold theory, then their client is being tried on an entirely new theory. Her attorneys also claim that prosecutors knew about the blindfold theory during a pretrial conference but never mentioned it.
Molloy imposed an Oct. 31 deadline for discovery documents, and defense attorney have asked that any evidence introduced after that deadline be excluded from the trial.
Molloy also imposed a Nov. 27 deadline to strike a plea deal, and documents filed on Nov. 25 indicate plea talks between the two sides have broken down. Apparently the defense wants a settlement conference, but the prosecutors call that a violation of court rules.