Prosecutors respond to newlywed murderer's appeal

Federal prosecutors responded to an appeal filed by the former Kalispell woman convicted of pushing her husband of eight days off a cliff near The Loop in Glacier National Park on July 7, 2013.

In documents filed Jan. 28, federal prosecutors said Jordan Graham, 22, had no grounds to appeal her murder conviction after lying to officials to conceal her crime. She was convicted of killing Cody Johnson, 25, in a case that garnered international headlines.

Graham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December 2013 and was sentenced in March 2014 to 30 years in prison after U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy rejected her request to withdraw the guilty plea that came as part of a deal with prosecutors that saw them dismiss a first-degree murder charge.

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.”

In their Jan. 28 filings, federal prosecutors argued that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should reject Graham’s attempts to overturn her conviction and sentence since her claims of prosecutorial vindictiveness “are based on the kind of supposition that will not sustain a valid motion.”

Prosecutors also argued that Graham not only killed her husband in cold blood but later lied about it to investigators and even created a fake e-mail in attempt to cover up the crime.

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.

Authorities say Graham sent the e-mail three days after she killed her husband and before Johnson’s body was found at the bottom of the cliff. The e-mail purportedly came from someone named “Tony” and said Johnson was gone so the search for him should stop.

Graham initially pleaded not guilty to indictments on first- and second-degree murder, saying she accidentally shoved her husband off the cliff during a martial dispute. She pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder in an agreement with prosecutors that came just before closing arguments in her trial.

Prosecutors dispute Graham’s claim that the plea deal required them to recommend less prison time than the life sentence they sought and the 30 years Judge Molloy ultimately handed down.