An Oregon jury on Wednesday found self-published romance novelist Nancy Crampton-Brophy guilty of killing her husband, a chef at the Oregon Culinary Institute, in 2018.
Crampton-Brophy, 71, faces 25 years to life in prison after the conviction on a second degree murder charge. Sentencing is set for June 13, KOIN reported.
Closing arguments were delivered on Monday, and the jury began deliberations Tuesday morning.
The trial began on April 4 and was paused for 10 days when one of the prosecutors tested positive for COVID-19, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Investigators said that Crampton-Brophy shot her husband of 27 years, 63-year-old Daniel Brophy, in the back as he worked at the culinary institute on June 2, 2018.
Crampton-Brophy pleaded not guilty and testified that she was at home at the time of her husband’s death. Prosecutors, however, showed surveillance video of her minivan near the institute at about the same time as the shooting. She then claimed she had a “memory hole” and must have driven near the institute while on her way to write in a park or somewhere else in her vehicle.
Prosecutors said the novelist, whose career was faltering, shot her husband in order to collect on a life insurance policy that topped $1 million.
Some of Crampton-Brophy’s titles have included “The Wrong Husband” and “The Wrong Lover” and a 2011 essay called “How to Murder Your Husband.”
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[Featured image: Nancy Crampton Brophy, left, is seen in court during her trial in Portland, Oregon on April 5, 2022. (Dave Killen/The Oregonian via AP, Pool)]
