The Montana woman accused of killing her newlywed husband by pushing him off of a cliff in Glacier National Park pleaded guilty to the charges against her, Thursday.
22-year-old Jordan Graham's plea agreement with prosecutors came unexpectedly, the Associated Press reported. The Missoula, Mont. Federal Court announced the stipulations of the arrangement right before both sides made their closing arguments.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss a first-degree murder charge and one count of making false statements to authorities in exchange for Graham's guilty plea to second degree murder.
If the 22-year-old is found guilty when she's scheduled to be sentenced on March 27, Graham could be put away for the rest of her life.
Graham admitted to pushing her 25-year-old husband of eight days Cody Johnson off a cliff at Montana's Glacier National Park on July 7, but insisted during the initial investigation that it was an accident.
The two had reportedly been fighting post-vows, and traveled to the park to talk about their relationship.
But the argument continued when they arrived at their destination - as the fight escalated, Johnson reportedly grabbed Graham's arm. Graham brushed Johnson's hand away, then pushed him off the cliff.
"It was a quick thing, I just wanted to get him off me," she told FBI agent Stacey Smiedala in a recording of her confession. "I don't' feel like I killed him; I mean, I pushed him, but it was an accident."
Johnson and Graham's friends who testified during Thursday's trial said that the two were ecstatic before their wedding, but Graham's tone started changing in the days that followed.
"Something was wrong," Graham's friend Kimberly Martinez told the jury. "I couldn't tell if she was unhappy or something had happened."
The prosecution contended that Graham lured her husband to the cliff, then shoved him off to brutally murder him. Graham's attorney has maintained that the 22-year-old was "naïve, immature and shy," and claimed she didn't tell law enforcement officials about the death because she was afraid.
