Widow awaits trial in urologist's killing

The doctor's widow is awaiting trial in June.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU
After 14 months of silence in the death of Dr. Gulam Moonda, authorities uncovered what they said was a plot to kill the Mercer County urologist.
Dr. Moonda had been shot in the head on the side of the Ohio Turnpike on May 13, 2005.
His widow, Donna, told officials it was a highway robber, but authorities said they had been suspect of her story from the start.
It wasn't until this past July that charged the 47-year-old Sharpsville widow, and then it was only with the help of her ex-boyfriend.
A disheveled looking Donna Moonda turned herself in to authorities at the Thomas D. Lambros Federal Courthouse in Youngstown on July 24 pleading innocent in the death of her 69-year-old husband.
That also was the day Moonda's ex-boyfriend, Damian Bradford, 25, of Beaver County, Pa., had been set to go to trial on charges of stalking and using a weapon in a crime of violence in Dr. Moonda's death.
Bradford, however, had forged a last-minute plea deal with prosecutors. He told police he shot Dr. Moonda, but only at the urging of the doctor's wife. Bradford had met her in drug rehabilitation in Beaver County, and he alleged she asked him to kill the doctor shortly after starting the affair.
Bradford contends he was offered half of the doctor's million-dollar estate if he carried out the plot.
Through cellular telephone records, prosecutors already knew that Bradford and Donna Moonda had been in contact that day and a physical meeting had taken place between the pair in Lawrence County. Those telephone records also showed that Bradford followed the Moondas from their Pennsylvania home to Ohio and the spot near Cleveland where the doctor was killed.
Bradford told police that Donna Moonda urged him to make it look like a robbery. She promised to give police an inconsistent description of the killer, he said.
Bradford was offered a 17 1/2-year prison sentence in exchange for his cooperation.
Effect at home
When word of Bradford's deal leaked out, Donna Moonda was under siege at her mother's Hermitage, Pa., home where news vans and helicopters converged. She raced out of the house and into a waiting black sport utility vehicle apparently provided by her attorney.
Three days later she turned herself in to face charges of aiding and abetting in the death of her husband.
She is being held in the Medina County Jail awaiting trial in federal court, Akron, in June.
Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
cioffi@vindy.com