Author Nancy Brophy Finally on Trial for Husband's Death.

Back in 2018, in southwest Portland, Oregon, romance novelist, Nancy Crampton-Brophy was accused of killing her husband, chef Daniel Brophy. Nancy allegedly walked into Oregon Culinary Institute on June 2nd, 2018, between 7:21 a.m. and 7:28 a.m., shot her husband in the back and in the chest from close range and then went home. Daniel was found on the floor in the kitchen by students arriving for class that morning.

This last week her trial started.

Nancy Brophy Trial Day One

Judge Christopher Ramras announced that Nancy's blog post from 2011 “How to Murder Your Husband” would be excluded from evidence. 

In their opening statements, prosecution and the defense both agreed that Nancy and Daniel had financial difficulties in 2017. 

The prosecution said that at the time of Daniel's murder, the couple was struggling to pay their $1,530 mortgage while also paying more than $1,000 each month in life insurance premiums. On top of all that, Nancy was spending a large amount of money on firearms putting the couple “on a path of financial ruin”. 

The defense said the couple had come up with a plan to accommodate for the delayed commission Nancy received from her Medicare sales that year. Also, Daniel had taken out a loan out against his retirement, which was something he’d done before and paid back, and that he was allegedly prepared to do again. 

The prosecution then moved on the topic of Nancy researching ghost guns online back in late 2017.  

The prosecution alleged that that act of researching guns was one of the first steps Nancy had taken towards plotting Daniel’s murder. 

The defense claimed it was part of her research for a new novel she was planning.

Besides researching ghost guns, Nancy also had purchased a ghost gun build kit. 

The prosecution claimed that Nancy couldn't assemble the kit and she sought out and purchased one at a gun expo in Portland. After realizing the slide and barrel from the first gun wouldn’t fit on the lower frame of the gun, she ordered another slide and barrel from eBay. Investigators found the first two guns Nancy purchased, but never found the slide and barrel. 

The defense claimed that Nancy had purchased several unusual items in the past for research for her novels and that purchasing a gun wasn’t out of the ordinary for her. They also said that Nancy had been inspired to buy a gun after hearing how many of her relatives owned guns, and after reading and hearing about the multiple mass shootings that happed in 2017-2018. She also wanted Daniel to take a gun with him when he went mushroom picking.

The next topic was life insurance policies. 

The defense detailed about Nancy and Daniel both having invested in life insurance for decades and that Nancy had also worked for insurance companies. 

In 2015, Nancy worried that she might die in a surgery that she had to have and so life insurance became a big concern of hers at the time.

The prosecution that cashing in on Daniel's life insurance policies that totaled $1.4 million could have been Nancy’s plan to remedy the situation with her finances. And that Nancy asked the detective for a letter to send to a life insurance company that would exonerate her as a suspect in Daniel’s murder, so she could receive $40,000 from one of his life insurance policies. 

Finally, both the prosecution and the defense said that by all accounts that Nancy and Daniel seemed to be in a happy and healthy marriage.

The first two witnesses were then called.

Kathleen Dooley was the first witness called. She is currently an educational assistant for an elementary school. She was a student at Oregon Culinary Institute, where Daniel was an instructor at the time of the murder. She was the person who called 9-1-1 that day. She said another student had found Daniel dead on the floor and yelled for her to dial 9-1-1. As Dooley was calling 9-1-1, she was trying to find the only other instructor in the building at the time, Dorothy Sadie Damon. She found Damon in the guest restrooms and the pair went back to where Daniel was lying on the floor.

The 9-1-1 call was then played in court. In the call you can hear Dooley say that another fellow student was preforming CPR.

Dorothy Sadie Damon was the next witness to take the stand. She was the pastry instructor and shared the same building as Daniel who was the culinary instructor. Damon stated that she was in the restroom washing her hands when she heard loud voices in the hall. She rushed out into the hall and saw Doolie on the phone motioning for her to follow. She then followed Doolie down the hall and into the kitchen where his body was lying. According to Damon, students were gathered around Daniel. One student was performing CPR. She said none of them could figure out what was wrong and they didn’t realize Daniel had been shot. Eventually, she said “it was obvious that Dan was gone.” Soon after realizing this, emergency medical personnel arrived at the school.

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