Newlywed asks to withdraw guilty plea in Park murder case

Attorneys for the 22-year old Kalispell newlywed accused of murdering her husband in Glacier National Park last year now want to withdraw her guilty plea.

Prosecutors, however, responded by pointing out that Jordan Graham was informed of the consequences of her plea before agreeing to it.

Jordan Graham has admitted pushing Cody Johnson, 25, off a cliff along The Loop Trail near the Going-to-the-Sun Road on July 7 — eight days after they were married.

In a surprise move, Graham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Dec. 12, 2013, just as the jurors were set to deliberate. Her sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula is scheduled for March 27.

But on March 25, defense attorney Michael Donahoe filed a motion stating Graham wants to withdraw her guilty plea because prosecutors are still recommending life in prison, even though second-degree murder would normally carry a lesser sentence

Graham’s attorneys have argued the “extremely reckless but unintentional act” warranted 10 years in prison.

Donahoe said the prosecutors’ request for a life sentence shows their offer to dismiss the first-degree murder charge was an “empty promise” and a way to avoid a possible verdict of manslaughter, a less serious offense than first- or second-degree murder.

A plea agreement was reached in December after the trial testimony was complete but before closing arguments were held.

Johnson’s body was found three days after he was reported missing by a co-worker at Nomad Global Communications, in Columbia Falls. It was Graham herself who told a Park ranger where her husband’s body could be found.

Graham testified at her trial that she was having second thoughts about being married so young, and that she and Johnson went to Glacier Park to talk about it. She said they argued at the edge of a steep cliff, Johnson grabbed her, and she “just pushed” without thinking about where they were.

But Graham took steps to stop investigators from tying her to Johnson’s death, including fabricating a story about Johnson leaving their recently purchased Kalispell home in a black car headed for West Glacier. She also created a fake e-mail from someone named “Tony” claiming that Johnson was with friends when he accidentally fell off a cliff in the Park.

In documents filed March 18, Assistant U.S. Attorney Zeno Baucus asked Molloy to impose a life sentence or else no less than 50 years in prison.

Baucus argued that Graham showed no remorse, left Johnson’s mother without a child, upended a community and had no respect for the law in the process.

On March 26, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kris McLean responded to Graham’s attorneys request to withdraw her guilty plea. He noted that prosecutors agreed to dismiss the first-degree murder charge but not to ignore all the other evidence offered at trial.

McLean also noted that Graham agreed to plead guilty on Dec. 12 without the benefit of a plea agreement, and that Judge Molloy informed Graham that day that her plea meant that she could face a life sentence in federal prison.

McLean also noted that circumstances in the case resemble conduct typically associated with a first-degree murder charge — particularly evidence suggesting Graham had planned to kill Johnson.

Such evidence includes Graham’s unhappiness about her new marriage; that she ended up with the only set of ignition keys to the car Johnson drove into Glacier Park the day he died, not at the bottom of the cliff Johnson had fallen from; and that she had text-messaged a friend in advance of Johnson’s last trip to the Park saying if the friend didn’t hear from her again that night, “something happened.”