DENVER — A federal jury has convicted a man of murder in the death of his wife, who fell off a cliff as they hiked in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
Jurors on Monday found 59-year-old Harold Henthorn guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Toni Henthorn, a Mississippi native. Defense attorneys argued that she accidentally fell while snapping a photo and prosecutors’ evidence was largely circumstantial.
Prosecutors argued during a two-week trial that Henthorn stage his wife’s death to look like an accident because he stood to benefit from her $4.7 million in life insurance policies. They said Henthorn gave inconsistent accounts of the deadly hike and could not explain why he had a park map with an “X” drawn at the spot where she fell.
Prosecutors argued the fatal fall was reminiscent of the death of Henthorn’s first wife, Sandra Lynn Henthorn, who was crushed when a car slipped off a jack while they were changing a flat tire in 1995 — several months after their 12th wedding anniversary. Henthorn has not been charged in that case, but police reopened the investigation after Toni Henthorn’s death.
Details of the earlier case dominated the trial. A paramedic who responded to the 1995 accident testified that Henthorn didn’t seem upset by what had happened, and an investigator said a shoe print found on the vehicle suggested it might have been pushed.
