Turnpike murder-for-hire: calls, messages used to show communications

6/21/2007

Dr. Gulam Moonda

AP

AKRON, Ohio -- A woman accused of hiring her lover to kill her husband exchanged at least 23 phone calls or text messages with him the day her husband was shot to death along the Ohio Turnpike, a state investigator testified Thursday.

Donna Moonda, 48, of Hermitage, Pa., faces the death penalty if convicted of hiring Damian Bradford, 25, to kill her husband, Dr. Gulam Moonda, for a share of his multimillion dollar estate.

State Highway Patrol investigator Thomas Halligan used charts, maps and an overhead projector to detail for a jury in U.S. District Court the communications Donna Moonda had with Bradford the day Moonda, 69, was killed on May 13, 2005. The couple were going to Toledo.

Donna Moonda sent a text message to Bradford at 4:13 p.m. telling Bradford that she and her husband were about to leave. The message ended: "I luv u."

At 6:29 p.m., there was an unanswered call to Bradford that placed him near the shooting, south of Cleveland, Halligan said. The shooting occurred between 6:30 and 6:40 p.m.

Bradford, 25, of Monaca, Pa., has admitted shooting Moonda and is expected to be the prosecution's key witness in the case against Moonda. Bradford will serve a 17 1/2-year prison sentence in exchange for cooperating with authorities. He pleaded guilty last July to interstate stalking and a gun charge.

The defense contends that Bradford acted alone and is a liar with no credibility.

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