Source: (CNN)
Less than nine months after she shoved her husband off a steep cliff just days into their marriage, a federal judge sentenced Jordan Linn Graham to 30 years in prison Thursday.
Graham, 22, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December, admitting to luring her new husband, Cody Johnson, to Glacier National Park and pushing him off a cliff.
“After providing several false statements to law enforcement officers and impeding the investigation by providing false information, Graham ultimately admitted pushing Cody from behind with both hands,” prosecutors said in a statement Thursday.
Graham filed a motion to withdraw her guilty plea on Wednesday, arguing that prosecutors had negotiated the plea deal in bad faith by pushing the judge toward a harsher sentence despite agreeing to drop a first-degree murder charge.
Prosecutors denied that claim and argued that Graham was trying to delay sentencing. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy denied Graham’s motion to withdraw her guilty plea at Thursday’s hearing, accepting the plea deal and sentencing her to 365 months in prison.
The judge’s ruling came after several members of Johnson’s family asked the judge to sentence Graham to life in prison, CNN affiliate KPAX reported.