Judge: Keep defendant locked up

The defendant's father shooed reporters away, saying 'Let us go.'
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- "I love you, baby," Sharon Bradford said as her son left federal court to remain in prison pending trial in the turnpike murder of a wealthy doctor.
Damian Bradford -- handcuffed, shackled and dressed in an unmarked orange jumpsuit -- looked back and gave his mother a weak smile as U.S. marshals removed him from U.S. Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert's court Thursday morning. After a 20-minute pretrial detention hearing, the judge agreed with the government's position that Bradford is a flight risk and danger to the community and ordered that he remain locked up.
The 24-year-old Monaca, Pa., man is being housed at Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, a private prison on Hubbard Road. The prison contracts with the U.S. Marshal Service to house federal detainees.
Bradford was indicted last month on charges of interstate stalking and using a firearm during a crime of violence. He faces life in prison, if convicted.
About the case
He is accused of trailing 69-year-old Dr. Gulam Moonda from Pennsylvania with the intent to harass and kill the Hermitage urologist on the Ohio turnpike near Cleveland on May 13, 2005. Moonda, his wife and mother-in-law were traveling to Toledo.
Donna Moonda, 46, told police that when she stopped on the turnpike so her husband could drive, another vehicle pulled behind their Jaguar and a gunman demanded money. The doctor was shot in the head after turning over his wallet.
Bradford, also known as Kaos, reportedly met Donna Moonda in drug rehabilitation and they were having an affair. The doctor's wife planned to divorce her husband in hopes of obtaining up to $4 million, authorities said.
Bradford is represented by Monroeville attorneys Michael J. DeRiso and Patrick J. Thomassey. Linda H. Barr, an assistant U.S. attorney, is prosecuting the case.
Neither side called witnesses at Thursday's hearing.
Thomassey told the judge that his client does not have a "significant" criminal history and could go live with his mother. The lawyer asked for bail or electronically monitored house arrest.
On probation
Barr pointed out that Bradford is facing life in prison if convicted, adding "a person died at the hands of this individual." She said Bradford was on probation at the time of the murder. The federal prosecutor said Bradford, who had steroids in his apartment last year, is serving yet another probation and facing trial in an unrelated case in Allegheny County that involves resisting arrest and assault on a police officer.
Bradford, the prosecutor said, is not employed and can't point to any employment since high school. Despite no assets, he retained private counsel, she said.
"We were hoping to hear something about the evidence today, but didn't," Thomassey said after court. "Someday we'll find out what the evidence is."
Bradford's mother had no comment as she hurried away after court. When her son was arraigned earlier this month, she told reporters: "Donna Moonda needs to be arrested ... I believe she killed her husband for the money."
A man who had sat with Sharon Bradford in court Thursday shooed away reporters and photographers as they crossed Market Street. "Back away -- let us go!" he yelled.
DeRiso identified the man as Damian Bradford's father, Kenneth. The lawyer didn't know the man's last name or current relationship with Damian and Sharon Bradford.
Facing perjury charge
In a related matter, Charlene McFrazier, 21, of Leetsdale, Pa., the woman accused of falsely providing an alibi for Bradford, is charged with perjury. The government said she testified under oath to a grand jury that she met with Bradford in Beaver County on May 13, 2005, between 6 and 7 p.m. when she did not.
Bradford and McFrazier are both scheduled for status conferences April 27 in Akron federal court. The cases are assigned to U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr.
meade@vindy.com