Brian Cooper and Alisha Bromfield: Murder, Retrial, and Home Depot Suit

Alisha Bromfield, a 21-year-old seasonal Home Depot worker who was six months pregnant, was strangled to death on August 19, 2012, in a resort hotel room in Nasewaupee, Wisconsin, by her regional manager Brian Cooper. Cooper, 37, of Plainfield, Illinois, was later convicted of two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole. The killing also produced a federal civil case that reached the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that employers can be held liable when a supervisor uses company-granted authority to facilitate violence against a subordinate.

What Happened in Door County

Cooper had coerced Bromfield into traveling with him to his sister’s wedding in Door County, Wisconsin, threatening to fire her or cut her hours if she refused.¹ After the wedding, the two returned to a resort in Nasewaupee. Door County District Attorney Ray Pelrine said Cooper woke Bromfield between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. and, after she rejected his suggestion that they enter a permanent relationship, strangled her with his hands for five minutes or more until she was dead.² He then undressed her body and sexually assaulted it.³

Bromfield was carrying a daughter she had planned to name Ava Lucille. Cooper was not the father. Neither Bromfield nor the baby survived.⁴ After the killing Cooper tried to drown himself in Ellison Bay and was taken into custody wet and without shoes. He told investigators what he had done. His bond was set at $1 million cash.²

Years of Harassment That Came Before

Cooper had supervised Bromfield seasonally since 2006. He was jointly employed by Home Depot U.S.A., Grand Service, LLC, and Grand Flower Growers, Inc., a supplier that has provided plants to Home Depot garden centers since 1999.⁵

Court filings describe a long pattern of abuse. Cooper referred to Bromfield as his “girlfriend,” screamed obscenities at her in front of customers, called her a “slut” and a “whore,” threw and slammed objects at work, denied her lunch breaks if she planned to eat with a male companion, and monitored her through unwanted calls and texts outside working hours.⁵ Other young women reported similar treatment. A former subordinate identified as “Jessica,” a recent high school graduate, told a group leader that Cooper made sexual comments about his genitals, rubbed himself against her, and called her his girlfriend. She quit because she was uncomfortable working for him.

Bromfield complained repeatedly. She told a group leader she did not want to be left alone with Cooper. Managers saw the behavior for themselves: one found her crying after Cooper denied her a break, another sent Cooper home after he called her vulgar names in front of a customer. Grand Service ordered Cooper to attend anger management classes, but he never finished the first course, and when he pushed back with human resources he was told to attend more sessions. No one followed up.¹ Cooper remained Bromfield’s supervisor throughout.

The Criminal Case

Cooper was charged in Door County Circuit Court with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, one for Bromfield and one for her unborn daughter, along with third-degree sexual assault. He entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental illness.⁶ Because of extensive media coverage, Judge D. Todd Ehlers granted a motion to bring in jurors from outside the county.

A Hung Jury the First Time

Cooper’s first trial ended on June 22, 2013, in Sturgeon Bay with a hung jury on the homicide counts. The vote was 10-2 in favor of conviction. A note from the jury foreman, read aloud by Judge Ehlers, said at least one dissenting juror refused to participate in deliberations and would “hide in the bathroom or doodle” during the process.⁷ Pelrine said the “vast majority of jurors were ready to convict” but one juror had “completely withdrawn from the deliberations.”⁸ Judge Ehlers declared a mistrial on the homicide counts. The same jury did convict Cooper of third-degree sexual assault.

Retrial, Sentence, and Appeal

A jury drawn from Dodge County retried the homicide charges, and in May 2014 Cooper was convicted on both counts.⁹ On July 24, 2014, Judge Ehlers sentenced him to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for the homicides. Cooper also received two years in prison for the sexual assault, followed by two years of extended supervision, and was ordered to pay more than $8,000 in restitution for funeral expenses.¹⁰

Cooper appealed, arguing ineffective assistance of counsel and that the trial court had wrongly excluded expert testimony about whether intoxication prevented him from forming the intent to kill. On August 1, 2017, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals (District III) denied the appeal, finding Judge Ehlers had acted within his discretion and characterizing Cooper’s motion for new counsel and a trial adjournment as a delay tactic. The court also upheld the exclusion of the intoxication-related testimony.¹¹

The Home Depot Lawsuit

On August 11, 2014, Bromfield’s mother Sherry Anicich, acting as administrator of the estates of both Alisha and Ava, filed a wrongful death suit in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, against Home Depot U.S.A., Grand Service, and Grand Flower Growers. The suit alleged the companies had negligently hired, supervised, and retained Cooper despite years of documented harassment and violent behavior.¹² “We’re still continuing to get justice for our daughter and granddaughter,” Anicich said. “This is part of their justice.”

The case moved to federal court, where the defendants argued they owed no duty to Bromfield for an off-premises killing and that the murder was not foreseeable. On June 9, 2015, the district court dismissed the complaint. Judge Jorge L. Alonso dismissed an amended version on March 11, 2016, again without prejudice.³

What the Seventh Circuit Held

On March 24, 2017, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dismissals and sent the case back for trial.⁵

The core question was whether an employer can be liable when a supervisor commits violence against a subordinate away from the workplace. The Restatement (Second) of Torts generally limits an employer’s duty to control an employee to situations involving company premises or company property. The Seventh Circuit held that supervisory authority itself can function like a company chattel: when an employer entrusts someone with the power to hire, fire, and set schedules, that authority creates a power imbalance that can be weaponized. Cooper used exactly that authority to coerce Bromfield into the trip that ended in her death.

The panel also rejected the district court’s approach to foreseeability. The lower court had effectively required a history of explicit threats or prior physical violence before a violent escalation could be considered foreseeable. The Seventh Circuit disagreed, holding that whether Cooper’s documented pattern of harassment, verbal abuse, throwing objects, and physical intimidation made violence foreseeable was a question for a jury. Under Illinois negligence law, the court said, it is enough that “some harm” was foreseeable; the employer did not need to have specifically foreseen murder. The family was “entitled to try to prove its truth” before a jury.¹

What Sherry Anicich Did Next

In February 2014, while Cooper’s retrial was still pending, Anicich testified before a Wisconsin Assembly committee, pushing for limits on the voluntary intoxication defense Cooper had used at his first trial. “I could not believe that this could be a possible defense for such a gruesome murder,” she told lawmakers, urging that the defense be available only at a judge’s discretion rather than as of right.¹³

Anicich and her husband Joe also founded The Purple Project, a nonprofit based in Oswego, Illinois, named in honor of Alisha. It provides financial and emotional support to single young mothers in need and runs grief counseling and retreats for parents who have lost children.¹⁴

1
Courthouse News Service. Seventh Circuit Slams Home Depot Employee Murder Case
2
Fox 6 Now. $1 Million Bond for Man Accused in Weekend Door County Resort Murder
3
GovInfo. Anicich v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., No. 14 C 7125
4
Green Bay Press-Gazette. Brian M. Cooper Sentenced to Two Consecutive Life Terms
5
FindLaw. Anicich v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc.
6
CBS News Chicago. Jury Outside Door County to Hear Murder Case Against Plainfield Man
7
Chicago Tribune. Plainfield Man’s Wisconsin Trial in Death of Ex-Girlfriend Ends in Hung Jury
8
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Trial of Man in Slaying of Woman, Unborn Baby Ends in Hung Jury
9
Chicago Tribune. Man Sentenced to 2 Life Terms for Killing Pregnant Woman
10
CBS News Chicago. Plainfield Man Gets Life for Killing Pregnant Woman and Unborn Baby in Door County
11
Green Bay Press-Gazette. Appeals Court Denies New Trial for Brian M. Cooper
12
Chicago Tribune. Mom of Slain Pregnant Woman Sues Home Depot
13
Fox 11. Family Pushes to Change Voluntary Intoxication Law
14
NPR Illinois. Illinois Woman Finds Peace Through Forgiveness After Daughter’s Murder