Nancy Crampton Brophy Murder Case Goes To Jury

PORTLAND, OR — The case against Nancy Crampton Brophy in the killing of her husband, Daniel Brophy, went to the jury Tuesday, the 27th day of the murder trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Crampton Brophy is charged with second-degree murder in the June 2, 2018, killing of her husband, Daniel Brophy, a popular chef and instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute. She has pleaded not guilty.

Before the jury got the case, Deputy District Attorney Shawn Overstreet had a chance to rebut the defense's closing arguments.

"The last time Nancy saw Dan was when she stood over him, looked into his eyes and pulled that trigger one last time," Overstreet told the jury.

Overstreet was responding to an assertion by defense lawyer Kristen Winemiller that the last time Crampton Murphy saw her husband was the morning of his death, when he left their home in Beaverton for his job at the Oregon Culinary Institute where he was a chef and instructor.

Overstreet accused the defense of trying to distract the jury from the facts of the case and of raising issues that were not relevant.

The prosecutor argued that Crampton Brophy had the motive, the means and the time to kill Daniel Brophy.

He disputed the defense assertion that Crampton Brophy would have been better off financially with her husband alive, arguing that a witness detailed how she would have received more money from insurance policies than she would have had if her husband had continued working.

"Nancy is guilty of murdering her husband, and it's now up to you to deliver the justice for chef Dan Brophy and the rest of the Brophy family," Overstreet told jurors.

Crampton Brophy was a self-published romance novelist who once wrote an essay, "How to Murder Your Husband," which was not introduced at trial.

She was arrested on Sept. 5, 2018, and has been held in Multnomah County Detention Center without bail since then.