AKRON, Ohio – A woman accused of offering her younger lover a share of her doctor husband's multimillion-dollar estate to entice him to kill the 69-year-old was convicted Friday of murder-for-hire and other charges.
Donna Moonda, 48, could now face the death penalty.
The defense had argued that her 25-year-old lover, Damian Bradford, had acted alone and that Moonda had tried to revive her husband after Bradford shot him along the Ohio turnpike. Federal prosecutors argued the two were in it together and portrayed Moonda as a perpetual liar, thief and drug user.
"Two minds were set on murder," assistant U.S. attorney Linda Barr told jurors Thursday in closing arguments. "Two fingers were on the trigger of that gun on May 13, 2005, and two people must be held accountable."
Bradford has admitted shooting the doctor in the side of the head after his wife pulled over on the turnpike south of Cleveland, supposedly to let her husband take the wheel.
The federal jury also convicted Moonda of interstate stalking and two counts of using or carrying a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
As U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. read the four guilty verdicts, Moonda went from holding back tears, to shaking her head to quietly sobbing, dabbing her eyes with a tissue.
Jurors deliberated for eight hours over two days after more than two weeks of testimony.
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