An Oregon judge has sentenced Nancy Crampton Brophy to life in prison for the death of her late spouse.
A jury found that Brophy shot her husband of 26 years for a $1.5m (£1.2m) life insurance pay-out. Her late husband, Daniel Brophy, was a chef and respected teacher at the Oregon Culinary Institute. He was found shot twice in the kitchen of the Institute in June 2018.
The romance author had garnered a lot of attention for the crime of murdering her husband due to an essay she wrote several years ago titled How to murder your husband.
Before her crime, Crampton Brophy had been a self-published author whose works of steamy romance and suspense include the novels The Wrong Husband and The Wrong Lover.
“The thing I know about murder is that every one of us have it in him/her when pushed far enough,” she had said in the now-deleted post. She listed a number of ways to commit mariticide, from guns and knives to poison and hitmen before writing “it is easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them”. She went on to add: “If the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don’t want to spend any time in jail”.
Prosecutors for the case, successfully argued that Crampton Brophy had the motive and the means to murder her partner, showing that she stood to gain a large insurance pay-out after his death. Although police never found the murder weapon, she was shown to have purchased a gun of the same make and model. Brophy’s defense team claimed her purchase, of the gun parts was an inspiration for her next novel.
A jury of 12 found her guilty of second-degree murder after deliberating for less than two days, (with the possibility of parole after 25 years), this is something that her lawyers said they plan to appeal.
'How to Murder Your Husband' author is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of killing him for $1.4 million insurance payout
Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, will be eligible for parole in 25 years, a judge said
The author, from Portland in Oregon, was found guilty pic.twitter.com/Irn3xC21RJ— MassiVeMaC (@SchengenStory) June 13, 2022
Prior to Brpohy’s sentencing, friends and family members of the deceased delivered statements. ”You opted to lie, cheat, steal, defraud and ultimately kill the man that was your biggest fan,” said Nathaniel Stillwater, Brophy’s son from a previous marriage. “You were – to borrow from your catalogue – the wrong wife.”
