Key Parts of the Trial in Husband's Cliff Death Conviction

Harold Henthorn is facing mandatory life in prison for his second wife's death.

ByABC News
September 22, 2015, 3:32 PM

— -- Conflicting stories and unexplained events contributed to the case against Harold Henthorn, the Colorado man found guilty of killing his second wife by pushing her off a cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park.

A federal jury Monday convicted Harold Henthorn of first-degree murder for killing Toni Henthorn in September 2012.

Inconsistences in his story about what happened on the day of his wife's death were among the major points that prosecutors stressed during the trial.

And among the details Henthorn could not explain was the 'X' that he had marked on a map, denoting the spot from which she fell, according to The Associated Press.

"He seemed at a loss for words," park Ranger Mark Faherty testified during the trial, according to ABC affiliate KMGH in Denver. "He hemmed and hawed before he finally gave me an explanation."

One of the other witnesses who testified in court was Julie Sullivan, a dispatcher who spoke to Henthorn immediately after the incident. Sullivan said that she did not believe that he was performing CPR, even though he said he was at the time, because he did not sound out of breath, KMGH reported.

What’s more, a park ranger responding to the scene showed the court a picture that indicated Toni’s lipstick had not been smudged, which the ranger said would have been expected if she had received CPR, according to KMGH.

Over the course of the two-week trial, prosecutors argued that he staged his wife's death to make it look like an accident. The defense had said it was an accident that happened while the two of them were snapping a photo.

Meanwhile, money was presented as the alleged motive because, according to the AP, he stood to inherit $4.7 million through life insurance policies.

Earlier, a District Court report reviewing the woman’s estate had noted that she had three $1.5 million life insurance policies at the time of her death. The special administrator of the estate noted that a claim was made for one of those policies just two days after she died -- on the same morning that her autopsy was being performed -- though no payment was ever made on the claim.

The trial was not limited to focusing on Toni Henthorn's death, however. Juror’s also heard about the death of his first wife, Sandra Lynn Henthorn, who died after being crushed by a car while she and Harold were changing a flat tire.

Prosecutors argued that there were similarities between the cases, which both happened in secluded areas where Harold was the only witness, that could not be ignored.

Police have reopened the investigation into Sandra Lynn's death in 1995, but Henthorn has not been charged in her death, according to the AP.

He will be sentenced Dec. 8 and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for Toni Henthorn's death. The couple's 10-year-old daughter will likely be adopted by members of Toni's family, according to the AP.