Nancy Brophy Today: Life Sentence, Appeal, and Testimony

Nancy Brophy today is an inmate in the Oregon corrections system, serving a life sentence for the 2018 murder of her husband, chef Daniel Brophy, and pursuing an appeal that seeks to overturn her 2022 conviction. The appeal, filed in February 2024, argues that prosecutors improperly steered jurors toward her 2011 essay “How to Murder Your Husband” even after a judge had barred the essay from evidence. As of the most recent reporting, the appeal was pending, with no oral arguments scheduled.¹

The Sentence She Is Serving

On May 25, 2022, a 12-person jury in Multnomah County Circuit Court found Crampton Brophy guilty of second-degree murder with a firearm.² Weeks later, on June 13, 2022, Judge Christopher Ramras sentenced her to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. That eligibility date would arrive when she is roughly 92 years old.³

She was born in 1950. She has been in state custody since her arrest on September 5, 2018, roughly three months after the killing.⁴

The Pending Appeal

In February 2024, appellate attorney Ryan Scott filed a 68-page brief seeking reversal of her conviction. It lists roughly a dozen alleged trial errors. The state’s response was due in August 2024. Delays are common in the Oregon appellate court, and no oral arguments had been scheduled as of the most recent reporting.¹

If the court grants a reversal, Crampton Brophy would be transferred to county jail to await a new trial.¹

The Essay Argument

The centerpiece of the appeal is the 2011 essay “How to Murder Your Husband.” On the first day of trial, Judge Ramras ruled the essay inadmissible because of unfair prejudice, and it was never formally entered into evidence.⁴

Scott argues that Senior Deputy District Attorney Shawn Overstreet effectively worked around that ruling during his final cross-examination of the defendant. Overstreet asked her: “If there’s one thing that you know about murder, is it that anyone is capable of doing it?” The defense contends that question was drawn directly from the essay’s themes, and that her answer — that she believed everyone is capable of murder — was irrelevant character evidence that should have been kept from the jury.¹

Search, Seizure, and Records Challenges

The brief raises several other claimed errors.

On search and seizure, the defense argues that Detective Rico Beniga exceeded “implied consent” when he stepped off the path to the front door of the Brophy home to photograph a scratch on Crampton Brophy’s van. The appeal also challenges the warrant used to search the couple’s digital devices. According to the defense, the probable cause offered — a bookmark for an article titled “10 Ways to Cover Up a Murder” found on Daniel Brophy’s tablet — was insufficient, because the article was written for mystery novelists rather than criminals, and because the couple’s shared iTunes account made it unclear which of them had saved the bookmark.¹

On evidentiary foundation, the defense argues that written declarations vouching for the authenticity of life insurance company business records were introduced without live testimony from anyone who could confirm their accuracy.¹

What She Was Convicted Of

Daniel Brophy, 63, was a chef and instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute in southwest Portland. On the morning of June 2, 2018, he arrived early to prepare for a class exercise. Students found the entrance locked, which was unusual, and one of them, Clarinda Perez, discovered his body in a kitchen and began CPR before realizing he had been shot twice in the chest at close range.⁵

The case against Crampton Brophy was circumstantial but layered. Surveillance video showed a minivan matching her vehicle driving past the culinary institute both before and after the shooting, contradicting her statement to investigators that she had been home. Three days after the killing, she moved to collect on a life insurance policy covering her husband, and she asked the Portland Police Bureau for a letter stating she was not a suspect. Police denied that request.²

Digital forensics officer Aaron Sparling testified that Crampton Brophy’s laptop showed months of gun-related activity, including a first visit to GhostGuns.com in November 2017, an order for a ghost gun build kit for a Glock 19 on December 24, 2017, and searches in early 2018 for terms including “Does a Glock pistol have a big kickback” and “Portland expo gun show 2018.” She also viewed videos on disassembling and reassembling Glock pistols.⁶

In February 2018, she bought a Glock 17 at a Portland gun show from a private seller. Days later, using a newly created eBay account, she separately purchased a Glock 17 slide and barrel from a Texas seller. Police recovered a Glock 17 from her home, but its ballistics did not match the shell casings at the scene. Prosecutors argued she had swapped in the separately purchased slide and barrel to commit the murder, then reinstalled the originals. The purchased slide and barrel were never recovered. Crampton Brophy testified that those parts were packed among her belongings and that she did not know how they went missing.⁷

Her Own Testimony

Crampton Brophy spent roughly 12 hours on the witness stand across two days. She testified that the ghost gun kit and the extra slide and barrel were research for a novel she planned to write, and that the Glock 17 was bought for personal protection after mass shootings in 2017. Asked about her movements on the morning of the killing, she said she had a “memory hole” caused by the trauma of learning her husband was dead, and that her account of driving around Portland that morning was reconstructed rather than remembered. A defense psychologist testified that traumatic events can impair memory formation.⁷

Her attorneys, Lisa Maxfield and Kristen Winemiller, argued that she had no motive. A defense financial expert, Tiffany Couch, testified that the couple held eight bank accounts, had cut their debt by 72 percent between 2016 and 2018, and were seeing rising annual income. Maxfield told jurors that “Nancy Brophy was far better off with Dan Brophy in her life.”⁸

The jury convicted her anyway. The next step for her case now lies with the Oregon appellate court, whose ruling on the pending brief will determine whether her conviction stands or whether she returns to Multnomah County to face a new trial.

1
OregonLive. Oregon Romance Writer Seeks Murder Conviction Reversal
2
Multnomah County District Attorney. Jury Finds Nancy Crampton Brophy Guilty of Murder
3
KOIN. Nancy Brophy Sentenced for Murder of Dan Brophy
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KGW. Nancy Brophy Sentenced
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The Daily Beast. Dan Brophy’s Students Found His Body
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KOIN. 6 Takeaways From Day 9 of the Nancy Brophy Murder Trial
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KOIN. Nancy Brophy Defense Testimony
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KGW. Nancy Brophy Closing Arguments