Wife's Death-Penalty Case Unusual: Akron Federal Court to Try Woman Accused of Arranging Murder

Jun 03, 09:43 AM

Current Headlines: By Rick Armon, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Jun. 3--A salacious murder trial that is to get under way this week in U.S. District Court in Akron will break ground as the local court's first murder and death-penalty case, authorities said.

It also will be the first murder trial in more than 25 years in the district, which covers northern Ohio.

"It's unusual in this region. There just aren't many of them," said Bill Edwards, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland.

Donna J. Moonda, 47, of Hermitage, Pa., is accused of arranging the murder of her millionaire doctor-husband along the Ohio Turnpike in May 2005. Dr. Gulam Moonda, 69, was shot by a gunman who emerged from another vehicle after the couple had pulled off the highway in Broadview Heights.

The gunman, Damian Bradford, 25, of Monaca, Pa., pleaded guilty in July to interstate stalking and a gun charge. He has said that Donna Moonda hired him to kill her husband and promised to split any inheritance. Bradford and Moonda had met in drug rehab and were lovers, authorities said.

Moonda is charged with murder for hire, interstate stalking and two counts of use of a firearm in a crime of violence resulting in death.

The case ended up in federal court because of the interstate stalking charge.

The most recent murder trial in the northern Ohio district, which includes Akron, Cleveland, Toledo and Youngstown, was in 1979 in Cleveland, Edwards said. It involved the slaying of FBI agent Johnnie L. Oliver.

Another murder trial is expected to begin in federal court in Toledo in October. That case involves a drug conspiracy, Edwards said.

The Akron trial before Judge David D. Dowd Jr. is to begin with jury selection Monday. Because of the possibility of the death penalty, Dowd has set aside two weeks for jury selection, with opening statements scheduled for June 18.

In what is an unusual step locally, the judge has issued "media guidelines" because of the high interest expected among media in the Pittsburgh and Youngstown areas. (Dr. Moonda was a urologist at Sharon Regional Health System in Sharon, Pa.) The guidelines state, for example, where interviews can be conducted and note that there will be only six courtroom seats available for journalists.

The Moonda trial probably will generate the most media interest at the courthouse since the case against Fawaz Damra, a Cleveland imam who was convicted in 2004 of lying about his ties to terrorist organizations, said Traci Lancy, a deputy clerk who has been directed by Dowd to handle media inquiries because of the volume of questions and requests.

A Youngstown State University professor who has followed the Moonda case compared some aspects to the murder trial involving Cynthia George, the Akron millionaire socialite who was convicted -- and later acquitted upon appeal -- of hiring a lover to kill another lover.

"It has all of the variables of sex and murder and drugs and interstate and violence, and it's lurid and it's juicy," said Fred Owens, professor of telecommunications at the school. "I could see how the national media would find great content here... If I was the assignment editor, I would be all over it.

Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.

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