Sentence appealed in Glacier Park murder

An attorney for a newlywed bride who pushed her husband off a cliff in Glacier National Park last year has appealed her second-degree murder conviction in federal court.

Jordan Graham, 22, of Kalispell, was charged with pushing Cody Johnson, 25, her husband of eight days, off a cliff on July 7, 2013, not far from the Loop Trail.

Graham initially lied about the crime, claiming her husband went out with friends and never came home. But pressed by police and FBI agents, she later confessed to the crime. The FBI garnered a confession after it showed video evidence of the couple entering the Park’s West Entrance together on the day of the murder.

Graham initially faced charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder just as the trial was headed to the jury. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy sentenced Graham in March to 30 years in prison.

Graham’s defense attorney, Michael Donahoe, appealed the sentence to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 17. He claimed government prosecutors and law enforcement created a web of stories designed to make it look as if Graham set out to intentionally kill her husband.

“The government’s effort from beginning to end was nothing but a kaleidoscopic set of theories in search of evidence,” Donahoe claims. “Evidence the government was willing to distort and shape to suit its purposes.”

Donahoe claimed FBI agents and Kalispell police recorded only portions of Graham’s confession, leaving out key facets of the case, including whether Graham walked away from Johnson before pushing him off the cliff. Walking away would have indicated to a jury that Graham gave herself time to think about what she was doing, thus proving premeditation and a harsher standard of murder.

Graham told police Johnson grabbed her during an argument and  that’s when she pushed him off the cliff. The couple argued often after they married.

Donahoe also challenged the government’s theory that Graham may have blindfolded Johnson before she pushed him off the cliff. Investigators found a piece of cloth about 1,000 feet downstream from Johnson’s body.

Donahoe claimed the government was late in bringing the blindfold to its case in an attempt to bolster a charge of first-degree murder, which amounted to prosecutorial vindictiveness.

In addition, Donahoe argued that Graham’s guilty plea to second-degree murder is invalid because when it came time for Graham to be sentenced, prosecutors maintained her actions were premeditated.

“In essence, the government argued in its sentencing papers the merits of the most serious count in the indictment that it had clearly promised to dismiss,” Donahoe claimed. “It is not ‘fair and just’ for the government to flimflam in this manner.”

As a remedy, Graham should have been allowed to withdraw her guilty plea prior to sentencing, Donahoe claimed. Judge Molloy, however, did not allow her to withdraw her plea.

Graham is serving her sentence in an Alabama prison. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana declined to immediately comment on the appeal, but would do so in court briefings, spokeswoman Keri Leggett said.