Jury in cliff-fall murder case will hear about death of wife #1
DENVER - A federal judge has ruled that prosecutors in the case of a Colorado man accused of shoving his second wife to her death off a cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park will be allowed to tell a jury about the unusual death of his first wife, reports CBS Denver.
In an 18-page ruling released Friday, U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson overruled objections made by the defense and wrote that jurors hearing the case against Harold Henthorn will be allowed to hear about the 1995 death of his first wife, Sandra Lynn Henthorn, who Harold Henthorn said was crushed when a car slipped off a jack while the two were changing a flat tire.
Her death was initially ruled an accident, but investigators have since reopened the case. No charges have been filed.
Harold Henthorn does, however, face a charge of first-degree murder in the death of his second wife - Toni Henthorn, who fell to her death during a September 2012 hike.
Investigators have said he could not explain why he had a park map with an "X" drawn at the spot where she fell.
Harold Henthorn has called the fall an accident. His murder trial is scheduled to begin in September.
"There is sufficient evidence to support a reasonable finding by a jury that it is more likely than not that [Sandra] Lynn Henthorn's death was not an accident but instead a murder," Judge Jackson wrote in his ruling issued Friday, according to CBS Denver.
The judge also ruled that the jury can hear about a 2011 incident in which Toni Henthorn was struck by a falling beam at a cabin she shared with her husband, according to the station. Harold Henthorn was the only witness and prosecutors have called the incident an unsuccessful attempt to kill her. His attorneys say it was an accident.
"If Mr. Henthorn was determined to kill his wife, dropping a board on her strikes me as an odd way to attempt it," wrote Judge Jackson. "The Court concludes that a jury could reasonably find by a preponderance of the evidence that the deck incident was not an accident, but rather a deliberate attempt to bring about his wife's death."
According to the station, the judge did, however, side with the defense on one issue by ruling that prosecutors will not be allowed to tell the jury about an insurance policy Harold Henthorn took out on his former sister-in-law Grace Rishell -- the wife of Sandra Lynn Henthorn's brother.
"I conclude that it is not relevant to the actual crime charged," the judge wrote. "It is not probative of Mr. Henthorn's common plan or motive to murder Toni Henthorn."