Jury finds man guilty of killing wife by pushing her off cliff
DENVER - A Colorado man accused of killing his wife by pushing her off a cliff has been found guilty, CBS Denver reports.
A jury returned a guilty verdict Monday in its second day of deliberations in the trial of Harold Henthorn, for the death of his second wife, Toni, in her 2012 death in Rocky Mountain National Park.
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Prosecutor Valeria Spencer portrayed Henthorn during closing arguments Friday as a man who has killed twice, though he was on trial for just one death.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Henthorn also killed his first wife, Lynn, in 1995, but was never charged in the case, which was ruled an accident. She died when the couple's Jeep fell off a jack during a tire change on a remote road, crushing her beneath it.
Henthorn collected more than $600,000 in life insurance in that case. Prosecutors noted during the trial that Henthorn was the sole beneficiary of his second wife's life insurance policies totaling $4.7 million in coverage.
Craig Truman, Henthorn's attorney, told the jury that prosecutors had no proof Henthorn had shoved his wife to her death.
But prosecutor Suneeta Hazra told jurors Henthorn made nine trips to Rocky Mountain National Park before Sept. 29, 2012, when Toni Henthorn plummeted about 130 feet off a cliff in a remote, rocky area where the couple had been hiking while celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary.
A 911 dispatcher who attempted to coach Henthorn through CPR testified during the trial that she concluded he was not actually attempting to save his wife's life, and prosecutors said Henthorn could not explain why he had a park map with an "X'' drawn at the spot where the victim fell.