PORTLAND, Ore. — The trial of romance novelist Nancy Crampton-Brophy continued Monday with the defense calling up family members to testify.
Crampton-Brophy is accused of shooting and killing her husband Daniel Brophy, who was an instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute, in June of 2018.
The defense claimed Crampton-Brophy and her husband were so in love that she would never have killed him. The state maintains Crampton-Brophy stood to gain a lot of money from her husband's death, and that she lied to police about her where she was the morning of the murder.
Crampton-Brophy's niece, Sarah Gitchell, testified that she spent a lot of time with Crampton-Brophy after her husband was murdered.
"I personally observed her grieving, crying, sobbing, breaking down many times," she said.
Gitchell said Crampton-Brophy and her husband seemed to have an ideal relationship.
"She started talking about Dan and started crying and said this wasn't a part of the plan and said Dan being gone wasn't part of the plan, and 'what am I going to do now,'" Gitchell said.
Gitchell went on to tell jurors that her aunt never spoke about concerns in her marriage, and overlooked a lot of issues to keep the peace within her relationship. Gitchell said at the time of the murder, Crampton-Brophy was not concerned about her safety.
"We all just figured it had to be a random person off the street," she said. "Meth had started to become a problem in the area and people often behave erratically and violently."
There was also testimony from Crampton-Brophy's cousin, Vicki Schmall, who mainly focused on her relationship with Crampton-Brophy.