Nancy Crampton Brophy Murder Trial: Both Sides Make Closing Arguments

PORTLAND, OR — After hearing 25 days of testimony, jurors adjudicating the murder trial of Nancy Crampton Brophy listened as lawyers for the two sides made their closing arguments Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Crampton Brophy is accused of killing her husband Daniel Brophy, a popular chef/instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute. Crampton Brophy pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder.

Someone killed Daniel Brophy on June 2, 2018, at the culinary institute, where students arrived for class and found him on the ground, shot twice.

"Maybe Dan wasn't giving her enough attention," Deputy District Attorney Shawn Overstreet jurors. "This wasn't working for Nancy. Dan was a problem. This isn't just about money. It's about lifestyle, and Dan couldn't give it to her."

Crampton Brophy, a 71-year-old romance novelist, sat quietly while Overstreet argued that only she would have had the time and knowledge of the school's layout to get in and kill Daniel Brophy in the six minutes after Brophy arrived for work and before students showed up.

Crampton Brophy originally told detectives that she had been home all morning the day that her husband was killed but was caught on a surveillance recording driving by the culinary institute, Overstreet told jurors.

During the trial, Overstreet said that Crampton Brophy had been in a position to collect nearly $900,000 in insurance money if her husband died.

Crampton Brophy's lawyer, Kristen Winemiller, painted a different picture saying that, at best, the prosecution had put forth a "speculative theory about how the facts might fit together."

Winemiller spent about two hours reminding jurors that they can't convict her client unless they are convinced of her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

"The overwhelming majority of the information you have heard does not support the state's version of facts, that that speculative theory about how the facts might fit together, what might have happened, isn't sufficient," Winemiller told jurors. "Instead the evidence that you've been presented calls very strongly for a verdict of not guilty."

The trial resumes 9 a.m. Tuesday with the prosecution presenting its rebuttal to the defense's closing arguments.

Then Judge Christopher Ramras will present the jury with instructions and deliberations will begin.