Inset: Alyssa Bradburn appears in court (KXLY). Background: The intersection near where Bradburn killed her father in Spokane, Wash. (Google Maps).
A woman in Washington state faces a lengthy prison sentence after meticulously documenting her intentions to murder her father and ultimately following through with a brutal attack.
In March, a jury in Spokane County convicted 33-year-old Alyssa Bradburn of first-degree murder for the death of her 68-year-old father, Timothy Bradburn, in June 2024.
On Thursday, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Julie McKay handed down a sentence of 28 years and four months to the defendant. Additionally, the court issued a no-contact order to prevent Alyssa from ever communicating with her brother, Trace Bradburn.
The siblings found themselves in the same room for what may be the final time.
During the sentencing, Trace Bradburn attended and shared his grief over losing his father, as reported by Spokane’s ABC affiliate KXLY.
“I just have to live my life with that,” Trace told the court. “And it just guts me every day.”
The underlying incident occurred on June 25, 2024, at the Bradburn home in Spokane. The victim died from multiple gunshot wounds and the culprit was never truly in doubt – the defendant herself called 911 to report that she had shot and killed her father.
Initially, however, the murderess told police her father was abusive to her and her dogs – briefly essaying a self-defense claim.
The defendant later withdrew her allegations against the victim, which included claims her father shot her dogs with a BB gun in the backyard, beat her and the dogs, and raped her when she was a child.
Also, from the start, Alyssa Bradburn revealed that the shooting had been pre-planned for weeks. When officers arrived, the defendant handed police a notebook detailing those plans, according to contemporaneous reporting by Spokane-based NBC affiliate KHQ.
“My journal has my confession and everything in it,” Alyssa Bradburn told police. “It’s the result, I killed someone, so you go to jail for that, he wasn’t trying to kill me at the time.”
The defendant had no criminal history before killing her father with several shots from a gun she practiced with at a local shooting range.
“Unfortunately, the crime Ms. Bradburn decided to start her criminal history with is the most significant and serious that we have,” McKay said during the sentencing hearing.
The shooting occurred just after Timothy Bradburn returned from a trip to Hawaii. As the victim walked through the front door of his own home, his daughter unleashed a flurry of gunfire.
After calling 911 just before midnight and confessing to the shooting, the defendant sat on the front porch and waited for police to arrive.
The state requested a sentence of 31 years and seven months in prison, citing the deliberate and premeditated nature of the crime.
“The evidence that was presented during this trial demonstrated an extreme and elaborate degree of planning,” Emily Sullivan, a deputy prosecuting attorney, told the court.
The defense requested a straight 25-year sentence, arguing that Alyssa Bradburn suffers from extreme mental illness.
“Ms. Bradburn suffers from a state where she sometimes blurs fantasy with reality,” defense attorney Brian Raymon argued.
In the end, the court essentially split the difference by issuing a sentence of 280 months for the murder itself, with an additional 60-month sentence due to a firearm enhancement.
The defendant, for her part, declined to perform an allocution. She was reportedly seen smiling during the proceedings.
