Portland woman under suspicion in the death of her husband who was shot dead on the job four years ago, accidentally admitted to shooting him to cellmate, trial hears

Romance novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, is on trial accused of shooting dead her husband, in June 2018 for his $1.4 million life insurance policy

Chef Daniel Brophy, 63, was killed in June 2, 2018, as he prepared for work inside an Oregon Culinary Institute classroom – The alleged shooter prosecutors say, was his spouse of 21 years, Nancy Crampton Brophy,

Prosecutors played a tape of the new widow asking a detective, four days after the shooting, to write a letter specifically exonerating her in her husband’s death, so she could collect the policy payout

Daniel Brophy was killed in a teaching kitchen at the Oregon Culinary Institute in southwest Portland, where he had worked since 2006

His wife, Nancy Crampton Brophy, was caught on camera half an hour before his death driving to the culinary institute, twenty minutes later, she drove away and went home

She has pled not guilty to second-degree murder, but if found guilty she could face life in prison

Prosecutors claimed on Tuesday that she’s already admitted to the shooting in a conversation with her cellmate at the Inverness Jail in Portland, Oregon

In the conversation, Crampton Brophy allegedly said that the shooting occurred at close range, after which the conversation became awkward

Defense attorneys claim it is too late to call the cellmate, Anndrea B Jacobs, as a witness as they have already rested their case

The matter will be decided at a later date, with Judge Christopher Ramras asking both sides to submit written arguments 

Prosecutors in Portland, Oregon claimed Tuesday that Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, accidentally let slip that she’d shot chef husband Daniel Brophy, 63, dead at the Oregon Culinary Institute in June 2018. The former struggling romance novelist who wrote an essay entitled ‘How to Murder Your Husband’ accidentally admitted to shooting dead her chef spouse to a cellmate, a court heard.
She’s said to have made the accidental admission back in September 2018, while chatting to then cellmate Anndrea B Jacobs at the Inverness low security jail in Portland.
‘Ms. Brophy held her arms apart, like a wingspan, and said “I was this far away when the shooting happened,” Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Shawn Overstreet said of the alleged conversation.
‘She then corrected herself,’ Overstreet told the court. continued, and said he shooting happened at close range. 
Brophy has previously insisted she’s innocent of the crime, and has sought to blame it on a mystery assailant. 
She’s accused of executing her spouse to cash-in Daniel’s $1.4 million life insurance policy.
Nancy Crampton Brophy is on trial for second-degree murder and faces life in prison, if convicted.

A reference to the cellmate came in a long, partially illegible letter that Crampton Brophy received in March, Overstreet explained, the Oregon Live, reports.
It was intercepted by jail officials, and became a crucial piece of evidence in the trial. 
He said authorities did not immediately understand the significance of the letter, but were able to track down the cellmate, who was transferred to a prison in Texas after being convicted on embezzlement charges, to interview her about what Crampton Brophy allegedly said.
In the interview, Overstreet said, Jacobs appeared embarrassed after telling authorities of Crampton Brophy’s alleged confession.
‘Ms. Jacobs reported that it became very awkward’ afterward, Overstreet said, noting that Jacobs later told her attorneys she ‘didn’t want to go and be a snitch.’

However, defense attorney Kristen Winemiller argued against admitting Jacob as a witness in the trial because the defense has already rested its case.
‘To respond to this would require a significant investigation,’ Winemiller told Circuit Court Judge Christopher Ramras.
‘It’s just simply too late, after they’ve rested to bring in another witness of this magnitude,’ Winemiller said.
Winemiller said she only learned of the audio recording from the detectives’ interview with Jacobs this past Monday, adding that Jacobs is suspected of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in Medicaid fraud – though Overstreet said he wasn’t aware of an active investigation.
In the end, Ramras declined to rule on the matter immediately, Oregon Live reports, and instead asked for written arguments to be submitted by May 11. 

The accusations of a confession came as testimony resumed in Crampton Brophy’s murder trial following an 11-day delay when Deputy DA Overstreet came down with COVID-19. The jury has also lost one of its members due to illness, Oregon Live reports.
Trial Judge Ramras had previously ruled that prosecutors cannot introduce into evidence an essay titled ‘How to Murder Your Husband’ that Crampton Brophy wrote in 2011, while applying to a writer’s group.
A significant passage in that essay is where Crampton Brophy writes: ‘As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure.’
‘After all, if the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don’t want to spend any time in jail. And let me say clearly for the record, I don’t like jumpsuits and orange isn’t my color.’ 
In some of the more contentious writing she also weighed valid motives for murder and methods.
Judge Ramras deemed the literary works too old to be relevant, since ‘any minimal probative value of an article written that long ago is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice and confusion of the issues.’
It has also been brought to light that the accused murderer in an online self-satire deals with the struggles of being married to a chef: ‘As a result there are chickens and turkeys in my backyard, a fabulous vegetable garden which also grows tobacco for an insecticide and a hot meal on the table every night,’ she wrote.
‘For those of you who have longed for this, let me caution you. The old adage is true. Be careful what you wish for, when the gods are truly angry, they grant us our wishes.’

Brophy was killed in a teaching kitchen at the Oregon Culinary Institute in southwest Portland, where he had worked since 2006.
Crampton Brophy was caught on camera half an hour before his death driving to the culinary institute. Twenty minutes later, she drove away and went home to Beavertown.  
Prosecutors claim that Crampton Brophy was motivated by his $1.4 million life insurance policy, and played an audio recording to the court of her asking a detective four days after the shooting, to write a letter specifically exonerating her in her husband’s death so she could collect the life insurance policy payout.
She claimed the policy was worth $40,000, but investigators said she tried to claim 10 different policies that totaled $1.4 million, as well as a worker’s compensation plan because he was killed on the job. ‘Nancy Brophy was maintaining all those life insurance policies while continuing down a path of financial ruin,’ said Overstreet.
‘Well over a thousand dollars a month was being paid into these policies at a time when they were struggling to pay their mortgage.’

He said that despite Crampton Brophy and Brophy celebrating a large wedding in 1997, they did not actually legally wed until shortly before he was murdered.
The kitchen showed no signs of a break-in, and Brophy’s wallet and phone were on him at the time of death.
No suspects were ever identified except for Crampton Brophy, who was arrested in September 2018 and pleaded not guilty to the crime.
The court also previously heard how she had bought a ‘ghost gun’ assembly kit online on Christmas Eve 2017, which Daniel Brophy himself signed for when it was delivered in January 2018, and his wife was traveling for work.
Unable to put the gun together, Nancy bought another gun at a Portland gun show in February 2018 and, a month later, began practicing at a gun range. Daniel was shot dead on June 2, 2018,
Overstreet said Crampton Brophy used a Glock pistol she bought at the gun show to shoot her husband, then swapped out the gun’s barrel with an identical mechanism, preventing forensic experts from matching the spent bullets with the original slide-racking system.
However refuting the prosecution gun prep theory defense attorney Lisa Maxfield told the court her client, a novelist, bought the guns as research for her literary work.
She also said Crampton Brophy had worked as a salesperson for a variety of insurance companies and had an incentive to buy multiple policies when she changed jobs, to demonstrate her belief in the product, and because she received a commission.
Maxfield told the court the ‘circumstantial case’ against Crampton Brophy ‘begs you to cast a blind eye to the most powerful evidence of all: love.’
She said her client had no reason to kill her husband, and her finances deteriorated after his death. ‘Nancy has always been thoroughly, madly, crazily in love with Dan Brophy, and she remains so to this day,’ Maxfield said. But, the writer whose titles include The Wrong Husband and The Wrong Cop, previously spoke about her home life in writer forums, where she said their marriage, like any other, had its ‘ups and downs’.
The blog post, which she wrote on the site Seeing Jane in 2011, began: ‘As a suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure. 

It goes on to list five potential motives for wanting to kill your husband that were divided into the following categories;
‘Financial: Divorce is expensive, and do you really want to split your possessions?’
‘Lying, cheating b*****d: This is a crime of passion. In anger, you bash his head in or stab him with a kitchen knife.’
‘Fell in love with someone else: Let’s say your Church frowns on divorce. You need to be a widow, so you won’t fall out of favor with your religion.’
‘Abuser: This one is tough. Anybody can claim abuse. What is abuse?’
‘It’s your profession: Now we’re talking. You already possess both skill and knowledge. *8’You have the moral ambiguity necessary to carry it off.’
She also gave the reader ‘options’ on what their murder weapon or technique should be.
She wrote: ‘Guns – 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.
‘Knives – really personal and up close. Blood everywhere.
Crampton Brophy, a self-published romance novelist who sold life insurance and Medicare policies, is expected to take the stand at some point in the next two weeks.
The septuagenarian faces the prospect of a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison, if convicted.