NY Daily News
December 12, 2013
A Montana man who was shoved off a cliff by his new wife canceled plans to go kayaking and golfing the day of his death because she said she had a “surprise” for him, prosecutors said.
Stephen Rutledge, stepfather to defendant Jordan Linn Graham, told jurors in U.S. District Court in Missoula that he’d chatted with her new husband about taking to the water on the morning of July 7.
But his stepdaughter’s alleged victim, Cody Johnson, told him he’d decided not to go that day because his bride of eight days “had a surprise” for him. Rutledge’s account was backed up by Eddie Alberto Colon, who testified Wednesday that his pal Johnson had called off a round of golf for the same reason.
Graham, 22, has already admitted pushing Johnson 200 feet off a cliff in Glacier National Park. But she claims it was self-defense during an argument.
Federal prosecutors, however, claim she meant to kill her spouse — and point to texts she sent to a friend saying she was “unhappy” in her marriage, reports The Missoulian.
Check the nose:
This is probably going to be the next big Jody Arias-type news spectacle, since a White woman has committed a crime.
<b>NY Daily News</b> | I wonder if she yelled “surprise!” when she pushed him?