Newlywed frustrated she wasn't on 'Cloud Nine'

Flathead County deputy coroner Richard Sine took the stand in the murder trial of Jordan Graham on Wednesday, Dec. 11, and reported that the wedding ring was missing from the newlywed husband’s body.

Graham, 22, of Kalispell, faces charges in federal court in Missoula of first degree or second degree murder and making false statements for allegedly pushing Cody Johnson, 25, off a cliff in Glacier National Park on July 7. The couple had been married eight days.

Sine testified that when Johnson was found in a shallow pool of water below The Loop on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, his wedding ring and car keys were not with him. Johnson had an eight-inch fracture on his forehead and lacerations on his legs.

The missing wedding ring conflicts with statements Graham allegedly made to FBI investigator Stacey Smiedala on July 16. Graham had told Smiedala her husband was wearing his wedding ring when she accidentally pushed him off the cliff.

Much of Wednesday afternoon was taken up with the prosecution’s presentation of a recording made of the July 16 interview. Graham reportedly cried during an unrecorded part of the interview but remained calm when the recorder was running.

Graham said she was having second thoughts about her new marriage in the week following their June 29 wedding.

“I thought after a girl got married, she should be on Cloud Nine and be happy all the time,” she told Smiedala, adding later, “I am still in love with him.”

Graham said she didn’t want to get a divorce, but Johnson was treating her like a child as they got into a heated discussion above a cliff on the Loop Trail to Granite Park Chalet. She said she was angrier than she had ever been in her life when he grabbed her arm. But instead of pulling away and leaving, she pushed him with both hands, sending Johnson plummeting to his death.

“It was a quick thing. I just wanted him off me,” Graham told Smiedala. “I don’t feel like I killed him. I mean, I pushed him, but it was an accident.”

A friend of the deceased newlywed, Jacob Bell, who said he knew Johnson for four years, testified Wednesday that Johnson was not a risk-taker in the outdoors and would likely never go off a trail for a hike.

“He was more nervous about extreme hiking — even more than the rest of us,” Bell said.

Several other friends and Graham’s stepfather, Stephen Rutledge, testified on Wednesday about a “surprise” that Johnson had mentioned several times on the day he died. Graham told Smiedala in the recorded interview that the “surprise” was a barbecue she planned for Johnson and his friends.

Johnson’s mother, Sherry Johnson, told the court Wednesday that his parents took out a life insurance policy when he was just four months old, but she didn’t know if Graham knew about the life insurance policy.