Moonda sentenced in parole violation

The Mercer County woman was sobbing through the sentencing.

By LAURE CIOFFI

VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU

MERCER, Pa. — It wasn’t the homecoming Donna Moonda expected.

The Hermitage, Pa., woman convicted in federal court in the murder for hire of her wealthy physician husband, returned to Mercer County on Thursday to be sentenced on a probation violation.

Judge Francis J. Fornelli of Mercer County Common Pleas Court sentenced Moonda, 48, to 11⁄2 to three years in state prison for violating the terms of probation she received in 2004 after being charged with stealing fentanyl from UPMC Horizon in Greenville, where she was a nurse.

This sentence is consecutive to the life imprisonment sentence she received after her federal trial.

A visibly upset and crying Moonda refused to speak during her sentencing. Her attorney Jack Cline said after the hearing she was advised not to speak because she is appealing her conviction.

“I can’t think of any other grievous violation of probation than arranging the execution of your husband,” Judge Fornelli said, explaining why he gave Moonda the maximum sentence.

“It doesn’t escape me that you were given this probation at the very strong urging of your husband who was standing next to your. Unfortunately, nine months later, he was executed at your hand,” the judge added.

Moonda was charged in 2004 with stealing fentanyl, a painkiller, from the hospital where she worked as a registered nurse. Before her court hearing on the matter, she voluntarily entered an outpatient drug program in Beaver County, Pa.

She was then entered into a special probation-without-violation program in Mercer County that is given to first-time drug offenders.

It was in her drug rehabilitation program that she met Damian Bradford, now 26, a small-time cocaine dealer, and the pair started an affair.

Police contend that Moonda and Bradford plotted the killing of her 65-year-old husband, Dr. Gulam Moonda. Dr. Moonda was shot in the head after his wife had pulled their Jaguar off to the side of the Ohio Turnpike near Cleveland. Mrs. Moonda’s mother was sitting in the back of the car.

Bradford testified at Moonda’s federal trial that he shot the doctor at the urging of Donna Moonda, and the two intended to share her estimated $3 million to $6 million inheritance.

Bradford was sentenced to 171⁄2 years in federal prison in exchange for his cooperation at Moonda’s trial.

Judge Fornelli said Moonda’s county parole was revoked because she left the state on the day of her husband’s May 13, 2005, death and she was convicted of murder for hire and interstate stalking in his death.

The judge said he decided to sentence Moonda on her probation violation despite her federal prison sentence because she may one day get a commutation of her sentence or she may have a successful appeal.

“If you do that, I want you back here to answer in the state of Pennsylvania,” Judge Fornelli said.

Cline said his client was visibly upset even before the hearing because she was not given much notice that she would be returning to Pennsylvania.

Moonda arrived in the county Wednesday and spent the night in the county jail. She was expected to return to federal custody Thursday afternoon, but her attorney did not know where she to be taken. During her federal trial, Moonda was lodged at the Summit County Jail in Ohio.

cioffi@vindy.com