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Bradford: Moonda planned killing, agreed to split estate
AKRON, Ohio - The wife of a doctor gunned down along the Ohio Turnpike planned the crime and promised half of her multimillion-dollar inheritance to her lover if he killed him, the lover testified Monday.
"She wanted to get what was owed to her," Damian Bradford testified about Donna Moonda, who he said put the plan in motion after being dissatisfied with the $1 million offer by her husband, Dr. Gulam Moonda, for a divorce.
Moonda, 48, faces the death penalty if convicted in U.S. District Court of hiring Bradford to kill her husband.
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Bradford, the prosecution's star witness, said he was to receive half of Gulam Moonda's estate, estimated to be worth $3 million to $6 million, for killing him .
"My job was to make it look like a robbery gone bad," said Bradford, who has pleaded guilty to interstate stalking and a gun charge and will serve a 171/2-year prison sentence in exchange for cooperating with authorities.
Bradford said on the day of the shooting May 13, 2005, he followed the couple as they left their home in Hermitage, near the Ohio state line, and pulled in behind them when Donna Moonda stopped their car along the turnpike about 30 miles south of Cleveland. He ran to the passenger side of the car and confronted Gulam Moonda, 69, and then shot him.
After the shooting, he turned around on the turnpike and headed back to Pennsylvania, throwing Moonda's wallet and the gun used to shoot him out the window.
Throughout the trial, the defense has contended that Bradford is a liar who acted alone.
In a combative cross-examination, Roger Synenberg suggested that "the plan" the two had lacked specifics.
After briefly recapping it, Synenberg asked, "That's six months of planning?"
"Yes sir," Bradford said.
Bradford said he and Moonda had not practiced the plan on the turnpike and he hadn't received money in advance.
"Whose plan was it? Was it Kaos' plan or Donna's plan?" Synenberg said, using Bradford's street name.
Bradford conceded under questioning by Synenberg that he had lied in previous court appearances and also in an interview with police a week after the shooting when they questioned him about his alibi and where he was the day of the shooting.
Referring to her by his nickname of "baby girl," Bradford, 25, of Monaca, testified that it was Moonda who initiated the couple's relationship after the two met in court-ordered rehab.
She was sentenced to rehab after pleading no contest to stealing the painkiller fentanyl from the hospital where she worked; he was a low-level cocaine dealer from Pittsburgh.
He testified she began leaving messages for him at the home he shared with his girlfriend, pestering him to move out and giving him thousands of dollar to get an apartment and buy a car.
Moonda showered Bradford with gifts, including clothes and jewelry, gave him and his friends Christmas gifts in 2004 and picked up the tab for his monthly living expenses, shopping trips and meals out, Bradford testified.
"We talked on the phone all the time," Bradford testified. They would get together two or three times a week, sometimes spending eight hours together, he said.
Before the shooting, Bradford testified that he stalked Moonda when the doctor visited his mosque in Youngstown, but did not get the chance to shoot him. "There was no opportunity to pull alongside him," he said.
After that, he said he raised the possibility of shooting him at the couple's home, an idea she rejected because neighbors might notice. She then suggested an upcoming trip to Toledo, and also suggested that he shoot and wound her as part of the plan, Bradford testified.
Moonda, being held without bond, also is charged with interstate stalking and two counts of using or carrying a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
