Newlywed faces premeditated murder charge

The 22-year-old Kalispell newlywed accused of pushing her husband off a cliff in Glacier National Park this summer has been charged with first degree murder.

Jordan Graham is also charged with second degree murder and making false statements. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zeno Baucus and Kris McLean filed the grand jury charges in U.S. District Court in Missoula on Oct. 3.

She pleaded not guilty to all three charges the next day, Oct. 4. She declined to comment to reporters as she made her way through a throng of reporters and photographers outside the federal courthouse in Missoula.

Graham, who is currently released on house arrest, faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted of count one, first degree murder. That count states that Graham “knowingly and unlawfully killed Cody Johnson with malice aforethought and premeditation” on July 7.

According to the indictment, the false statement charge is based on Graham’s alleged statements to investigators about her husband’s disappearance.

Graham “falsely represented that Cody Johnson’s ‘car buddies from Washington probably came and got him. He always takes his out of state friends here,’ when in truth and fact, as Jordan Linn Graham, then and there well knew, she was with Cody Johnson when he last went to Glacier National Park,” the indictment states.

The case has garnered national and international media attention. The story was featured on the  popular TV talk show “Nancy Grace,” and a photo of the couple at their June 29 wedding made the cover of the Sept. 30 issue of “People” magazine.

Johnson, 25, had moved into his newly bought home in Kalispell on June 22. He and Graham were married seven days later. Thirteen days later, Johnson’s body was found below the popular Loop Trail to Granite Park Chalet. They were married eight days.

The search that ensued after his uncle reported Johnson missing from work soon turned into an investigation involving the FBI — murders inside national parks fall under federal jurisdiction. And it was Graham’s statements that sparked suspicions and ultimately broke the case.

The big break, according to an affidavit filed by FBI special agent Stephen Liss, came July 11 when Graham met with a Glacier Park ranger at the Lake McDonald Camp Store and reported finding a body below The Loop switchback on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

With all the efforts underway to locate Johnson, it seemed a huge coincidence that Johnson’s wife would be the person who found his body. Johnson’s body was also located in a place where Park visitors were unlikely to see it — down in a deep, narrow gorge and not visible from the overlook at The Loop.

According to Liss’s affidavit, Graham allegedly admitted on July 16 that she had lied about her husband’s death. She allegedly admitted that she got angry during an argument with Johnson while walking on the Loop Trail and pushed him off the cliff on the opposite side of the gorge from the Sun Road.

Graham’s defense attorney, Michael Donahoe, claims Graham was acting in self-defense and accidentally pushed her husband off the cliff. Donahoe said Graham was trying to free herself from Johnson after he grabbed her arm, and her push was part of a single motion to get free.