Nancy Brophy Murder Trial Began Monday In Death Of Her Husband

PORTLAND, OR — A Beaverton romance novelist who infamously wrote an essay, "How to Murder Your Husband," went on trial Monday for doing exactly that.

Nancy Crampton-Brophy, 71, was charged with one count of murder with a firearm constituting domestic violence.

She has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said that Crampton-Brophy shot and killed her husband of 26 years, Daniel Brophy, 63, a popular chef at the Oregon Culinary Institute, on the morning of June 2, 2018.

Opening statements began Monday. The trial was expected to last between four and six weeks.

Prosecutor Shawn Overstreet said that Crampton-Brophy "executed what she perhaps bereaved to be the perfect plot," adding that it wasn't, because "all of the leads that detectives followed up with all pointed back to Nancy Brophy."

Overstreet tried to paint a picture of what had happened the morning of his murder.

"Dan was standing at a commercial sink," he told the jury. "He was filling up the ice and water buckets as he did every day for the students. He would have had his back to the door Nancy likely came through."

On the day of his death, Daniel Brophy had arrived early at the culinary institute, disarmed the alarm at 7:21 a.m. and was shot and killed within seven minutes, according to prosecutors. Detectives later found surveillance video showing Crampton-Brophy arriving there before her husband and leaving at 7:28 a.m., according to officials.

They added that she initially told detectives that she had been home all morning.

Police said that at 7:30, one of Daniel Brophy's colleagues arrived. He was found dead about 30 minutes later when students arrived for a class.

At the time, the medical examiner determined that Daniel Brophy had been shot twice: once in the back and once in the chest. Both bullets pierced his heart, and either could have killed him, the medical examiner said.

The next day, Crampton-Brophy wrote on Facebook, "I have sad news to relate. I'm struggling to make sense of everything right now. While I appreciate all of your loving responses, I am overwhelmed."

A day later, hundreds of people gathered in the parking lot of the institute for a memorial to Daniel.

"Dan was one of the very few people I've known that did exactly what he wanted to and loved doing it," Crampton-Brophy said.

Court documents said that Crampton-Brophy asked detectives for a letter saying that she was not a suspect. She wanted to give it to her insurance company so that she could collect what she said was a $40,000 policy.

Detectives later determined she was due to collect more than $350,000, according to officials.

In his opening statement, Overstreet pointed to the insurance policies as just one part of the financial troubles that the couples were having. He said that they even missed a mortgage payment to make an insurance payment.

Crampton Brophy's lawyer, Lisa Maxfield described a different picture, one of a loving couple that had troubles but were working together to overcome them.

Maxfield said that the prosecution's case demands that the jury "cast a blind eye to the most powerful evidence of all... love," she said.

Before being arrested, Crampton-Brophy was a novelist who described her work on her website by saying, "my stories are about pretty men and strong women, about families that don't always work and about the joy of finding love and the difficulty of making it stay."

Before being arrested, Crampton-Brophy was a novelist who described her work on her website by saying, "my stories are about pretty men and strong women, about families that don't always work and about the joy of finding love and the difficulty of making it stay."
In 2011, she wrote an essay, "How to Murder Your Husband."

"As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure," she said in the essay. She said that if you use a gun, consider that they are "loud, messy, require some skill. If it takes 10 shots for the sucker to die, either you have terrible aim or he's on drugs."

In her essay on how to murder your husband, she listed five reasons for killing your husband.

• Financial.
• Lying, cheating husband.
• Fell in love with someone else.
• Abuser.
• It's your profession.

"It is easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them," she said in the essay. "But the thing I know about murder is that every one of us have it in him/her when pushed far enough."

The judge started the day by ruling that the essay was inadmissible. the day ended with two witnesses. One was the colleague who showed up just after Brophy was murdered. The other witness was one of the students.