Verdict expected in Natchez native’s death

Published 12:02 am Friday, September 18, 2015

DENVER (AP) — Attorneys for a husband accused of pushing his wife to her death from a cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park rested their case Thursday without calling any witnesses during the trial.

Closing arguments in the federal trial of 59-year-old Harold Henthorn were set for Friday.

Henthorn is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his second wife, Toni Henthorn, who fell about 130 feet in a remote area where the couple had been hiking in 2012.

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Harold Henthorn told investigators she had paused to take a photo and tumbled over a ledge.

Prosecutors say Henthorn stood to benefit from his wife’s life insurance policies totaling $4.7 million, which she didn’t know existed.

Defense attorney Craig Truman said Toni Henthorn’s death was an accident.

A coroner testified during the two-week trial that he couldn’t determine whether the woman fell or was pushed.

Prosecutors pointed to inconsistencies in Henthorn’s accounts of the deadly hike.

They have claimed he also killed his first wife, Sandra Lynn Henthorn, who was crushed when a car slipped off a jack while they changed a flat tire in 1995 — several months after their 12th wedding anniversary.

Henthorn has not been charged in that case.