PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Two writer friends of Nancy Crampton Brophy testified Tuesday saying Nancy had told them she bought or was thinking of buying a gun.
However, the court will never know if Nancy told them why she bought it, because the judge determined any further explanation to be considered hearsay.
Nancy, a romance novelist, is accused of murdering her husband Daniel Brophy at the Oregon Culinary Institute on June 2, 2018. Wednesday marked the 18th day of her trial.
On Thursday, the defense called Linda Smith and Darla Lukenbaugh to testify. Both women know Nancy through writing.
In her testimony, Smith said she’s known Nancy for more than 10 years and that Nancy was her writing partner. They would keep each other accountable on their writing projects and would brainstorm ideas together.
Smith said she considered Nancy a good friend. The two would get together once a week to work on their projects. When they were together, they would talk about their marriages and Smith said it seemed like Nancy and Daniel had a great marriage.
KOIN Coverage: The murder trial of Nancy Brophy
Sometime in 2017, Smith said Nancy told her she was planning to buy a gun. She said Nancy told her this “in passing.”
Smith said she never learned if Nancy ever did buy a gun and the two never talked about guns again after that.
Lukenbaugh said Nancy did tell her she had purchased a gun kit.
The judge would not allow Lukenbaugh to explain what Nancy had told her the gun kit would be used for, after prosecutors objected over hearsay concerns. But in their questioning, the defense asked Lukenbaugh several questions about how Nancy would brainstorm for her books.
In their opening statements, the defense claimed that Nancy planned to purchase a gun as part of research she was conducting for a novel she’d been working on before Daniel’s death. They said she’s purchased other odd items like night vision goggles and telescopes in the past as part of her research.
In the course of the trial, the prosecution has shown that Nancy had two guns in her possession, an assembled Glock 17 and and a Glock 19 gun build kit. She also purchased a slide and barrel for a gun off of eBay and investigators have not been able to locate this slide and barrel.
The markings on the bullet casings found near Daniel’s body do not match the markings left by either of the slide and barrels on the two guns investigators found.
Smith said she went to Nancy’s house the day Daniel died and said Nancy was very upset. She cried, was very pale, and her hands were trembling.
After Daniel died, Lukenbaugh said Nancy was concerned about paying the mortgage and was very concerned when she couldn’t find Daniel’s will for over a month.
Smith said Nancy often wrote in the mornings, which was something she noticed on the writing retreats they went on together. The morning of Daniel’s death, Nancy said she was in bed writing.
The only other witness to testify Wednesday morning was Dr. Patricia Warford, a psychologist who evaluated Nancy after she’d been arrested. Warford also testified Tuesday and said overnight, she had a chance to review all the statements she received from family and friends.
Warford said she had only used 12 of those statements to write her report and said after reviewing the others, she confirmed that they did not provide information about Nancy’s personality or mental state, or the quality of the Brophys’ relationship. Therefore, they were not useful to her report.