An Oregon jury has convicted a self-published romance novelist who wrote an essay titled "How to Murder Your Husband" of fatally shooting her husband, the Guardian reports. Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, was found guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday after a jury deliberated for two days over Daniel Brophy's death. Brophy, a 63-year-old chef, was killed in June 2018 as he prepared for work at the Oregon Culinary Institute in Portland. One of Nancy Brophy's lawyers she would file an appeal.
Nancy Brophy's 2011 how-to essay detailed various options for committing an untraceable killing. It detailed motives - financial, "lying, cheating, bastard," abuser - and discussed possible methods. The judge excluded the essay from the trial, noting it had been published several years ago. Jurors were not allowed to consider it. A prosecutor, however, alluded to the essay's themes without naming it. Prosecutors told jurors that she was motivated by money problems and a life insurance policy. However, Brophy said she had no reason to kill her husband and their financial problems had largely been solved. She owned the same make and model of gun used to kill her husband and was seen on surveillance footage driving to and from the culinary institute on the day of her husband's murder. She Brophy has been in custody since her arrest in September 2018 and will be sentenced on June 13.