Colorado man found guilty of murder by shoving wife off cliff

A Colorado jury took 10 hours to find a man guilty of murdering his wife by shoving her off a cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park on their wedding anniversary three years ago.

The jury Monday said Harold Henthorn, 59, had indeed murdered his wife Toni, when her body hit the ground after falling 130 feet from a rocky cliff on Sept. 29, 2012.

Defense attorneys argued she accidentally fell to her death while snapping a photo and prosecutors' evidence was circumstantial.

Prosecutors, who cited several pieces of credible evidence during the two-week trial, said Henthorn was actually on trial for two murders.

Henthorn's first wife Lynn died in 1995 after being crushed under the couple's jeep while changing a tire in a remote area of Colorado, prosecutors noted.

Henthorn, the sole witness in both cases, collected more than 600,000 U.S. dollars in insurance money after Lynn "accidentally" died, and a whopping 4.7 million dollars for the current Rocky Mountain tragedy, as the prosecution revealed.

The convicted murderer shook his head when the judge heard the jury, but the victim's brother, Barry Bertolet, told the media, "we are overjoyed with the verdict, and relieved this won't happen to any other lady."

"We don't have to worry anymore," Bertolet said.

The courtroom erupted in applause after the jury was dismissed.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Valeria Spencer portrayed Henthorn as a man who has killed twice, but is on trial for just one death.

Henthorn was never charged for killing his first wife, and prosecutors said he made nine trips to the park to plan the 2012 murder.

The bizarre case has received national attention, and was featured in the award-winning TV News show "48-Hours."

Key trial testimony was a 911 dispatcher called by Henthorn that night, who said he was not trying to save his wife's life.

Prosecutors also said Henthorn could not explain why he had drawn an X on a park map on the spot where his wife's body smashed to the ground.

During the riveting trial, Todd Bertolet said the family was quickly suspicious about Toni's death because Henthorn kept changing his story about what happened.

"I think there are four or five versions of the story he told," Bertolet said a year ago on CNN.

Bertolet said it was not until after his sister's death that his family learned the details surrounding the death of Henthorn's first wife.

"We knew he had been married previously. But he told us she died after a car accident. There's a big difference between a car crash and a car falling on you," Bertolet said in the CNN interview.

"I think if my sister had known the complete background on this guy, she never would have been with him." Endi