PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Neither the Glock 17 handgun nor the Glock 19 ghost gun build kit detectives found in Nancy Crampton Brophy’s possession fired the bullets that killed Daniel Brophy, a forensic scientist who took the stand at the murder trial Tuesday said.
Leland Samuelson is a forensic scientist with Oregon State Police who focuses on firearms. He said the Portland Police Bureau asked him to examine both the handgun Nancy had told them about and the ghost gun build kit detectives found in a storage unit belonging to Nancy to see if either weapon left markings comparable to those found on shell casings at the scene of the crime.
Daniel Brophy was found fatally shot twice at the Oregon Culinary Institute on June 2, 2018, and two shell casings were found near his body. His wife, Nancy Crampton Brophy was arrested for his murder in September 2018.
In court Tuesday, Samuelson said the markings left on the casings at the scene indicated to him they likely came from a Glock pistol. He determined this by looking at the shape and imprint of the firing pin on the cases.
After Daniel’s autopsy, he also determined the bullets were likely fired from a Glock as well, based on their appearance.
Samuelson said he tested both the Glock 19 and the slide and barrel of the Glock 17 from the build kit Nancy had. He said the slide and barrel from a gun would be all he needed to determine if it fired the casings collected as evidence.
He shot both guns, collected the casings and compared them – only to discover the markings on the casings he fired did not match the markings on the ones from the scene.
He still believes both casings were fired from a Glock pistol, they just didn’t come from either slide or barrel he used. Samuelson told the prosecuting attorney Shawn Overstreet that it was possible someone could have put a different slide and barrel on one of the gun frames and used it to fire the shots that killed Daniel, but without that slide and barrel, he’d never be able to confirm.
Prosecutors have said Nancy purchased another slide and barrel on eBay before her husband died and detectives never found that slide and barrel.
Samuelson said both the assembled gun and the gun kit detectives gave him were in like-new condition.
The second person to testify Tuesday was Officer Aaron Sparling. He previously testified on Monday, but returned to the stand to continue reviewing online activity he discovered on a laptop found in the Brophys’ home.
He said the laptop was logged in under a user named “nancy” on March 11 when someone looked up “cleaning a Glock 17” on YouTube. That same day, someone visited a YouTube page for a video called “Glock 17 Gen 4 DETAIL STRIP.”
On March 12, someone on the laptop looked up “Glock 17 Gen 4 Slide and Barrel” on eBay and on March 26, the user visited a website for a YouTube video on “loading a 9 mm glock.”
Sparling told the defense attorneys that there was no way to determine exactly who was using the laptop during these searches or if multiple people were viewing the YouTube videos. He just knows the account “nancy” was logged in at the time.
Kelsey Guay, an analyst for the Portland Police Bureau, also returned to the stand for a second time Tuesday. Guay previously explained her analysis of the Brophys’ phone records on the day of the murder.
On Tuesday, she explained that cell phone towers detected Nancy’s cell phone traveling from her home in Beaverton to the area of the Portland Expo Center on the day she purchased a gun from a gun show, Feb. 17, 2018. This happened while Daniel’s phone showed him near where he worked.
Prosecutors also asked Guay about investigations she did into Nancy’s cell phone records that may indicate she visited the North Fork Wolf Creek Public Range on March 26 and 27.
Brett Glendinning, who sold Nancy the Glock 17 handgun at the gun show, said when he testified Monday that the North Fork Wolf Creek Public Range was one of the places he recommended Nancy take her new gun to practice shooting.
According to Guay’s research, the cell tower service is not great in the area of the gun range. However, on both March 26 and 27, Nancy’s cell phone was detected traveling west on Highway 26 and was detected by one of the cell towers closest to the gun range.
On March 26, Nancy was not in the area for very long. On March 27, she was in the area at least between 10:38 a.m. and 11:04 a.m. By 11:08 a.m., her phone data show she was traveling back toward Portland.
On both days, Daniel’s cell phone records show he was at work at the Oregon Culinary Institute while Nancy drove west on Highway 26.