A jury on Tuesday acquitted a 31-year-old Little Falls man of intentional second-degree murder but found him guilty on one count of unintentional second-degree murder in the February slaying of his wife.
Jonathan S. Greyblood was charged with two felony counts of second-degree murder in Morrison County District Court in February after the body of 37-year-old Jeanine Greyblood was found on the ice under a bridge south of Little Falls.
According to the criminal complaint, Jonathan Greyblood notified police his wife was missing on Feb. 6. He said the previous night, they went to a bar and then a friend's residence, after which they started arguing.
Greyblood told police his wife got out of the car and said she was going to another friend's house; the missing person's report prompted law enforcement and volunteers to spend a day conducting an extensive search of the area.
Officials interviewed Greyblood again on Feb. 7, when he said he and his wife argued in their car while parked in their driveway, and she started yelling and hitting him. He said he "tried defending himself by putting his hands around Jeanine's throat, and he squeezed her throat until she went limp," the complaint states.
Greyblood said he tried to resuscitate her but was unsuccessful; he said he panicked and drove south of town and dropped her body on the iced-over Swan River.
The jury also deliberated on whether aggravated factors should be applied to increase the sentence, but decided against doing so Wednesday.
"We're gratified by the jury's decision that our client did not commit intentional murder," said Susan Gaertner, Greyblood's attorney. "And we're gratified that they did not find that he committed the crime in an aggravated or more heinous way."
