Montana bride pleads guilty in husband's cliff death By Lori Grannis MISSOULA, Montana (Reuters) - A Montana bride who pushed her new husband to his death from a cliff in Glacier National Park pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Thursday in an 11th-hour plea deal with prosecutors that will spare her from a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Jordan Graham, 22, reached the deal just as closing arguments had been due to begin in her federal murder trial in Missoula over the July 7 death of her husband of eight days, 25-year-old Cody Johnson. In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors agreed to drop first-degree murder charges that could have carried a mandatory life sentence, if she had been convicted, as well as charges of lying to law enforcement. "The court finds Jordan L. Graham competent, and I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that she is guilty of ... second-degree murder," U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said following the plea. He accepted the Graham's plea after questioning her at length about her understanding of the crime to which she was pleading guilty and after she told the judge she understood the consequences. Graham, who was led away in handcuffs after making her plea, told the judge that she understood she could still face a maximum sentence of life in prison. She could also get less time in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Her parents left the courthouse in tears. Graham had been in their custody and under electronic monitoring pending trial. Federal prosecutors contend that Graham deliberately shoved her husband off a rock ledge while the couple was hiking a steep trail at Glacier and then lied to investigators and tried to cover up the crime. Graham's attorneys had said the death was an accident that happened during a marital dispute in which Johnson grabbed his wife's arm and jacket and she pulled away even as she pushed him. The case was being heard in federal court because the death occurred in a U.S. national park, which is owned by the federal government. Federal prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing. Under federal sentencing guidelines, a conviction of first-degree murder, which Graham avoided with her plea deal, results in a life prison term. A second-degree murder conviction can result in a sentence of about 20 years behind bars at the least. Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Leslie Adler and Kenneth Barry