Published: Friday, August 4, 2006
Donna Moonda must return to Pa. for hearing
The parole violation hearing may be this month.
By LAURE CIOFFI
MERCER, Pa. — Donna Moonda will return to Mercer County to answer questions about alleged probation violations in her earlier drug case.
Mercer County District Attorney Jim Epstein said an order was issued Wednesday by Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Francis Fornelli. Epstein expects Moonda will be brought back to Mercer County before her federal charges are resolved. Epstein said the hearing could be this month.
Charges
Moonda is in the Medina, Ohio, county jail on charges that she aided and abetted in the May 13, 2005, murder of her wealthy husband, Dr. Gulam Moonda, a Hermitage urologist.
Dr. Moonda was shot in the head by a man after his wife pulled their gold Jaguar to the side of the Ohio Turnpike near Cleveland.
Last month, Damian Bradford, 25, of Beaver County, Pa., pleaded guilty to interstate stalking and using a weapon in a crime of violence in Dr. Moonda's death in exchange for a promised 17 1/2-year prison sentence. He agreed to testify against Mrs. Moonda as part of the plea agreement. She was arrested July 24.
Bradford told police he and Mrs. Moonda planned the murder in order to split her husband's millions.
Mrs. Moonda, a former nurse anesthetist, met Bradford in a Beaver County drug rehabilitation program after officials at UPMC Greenville found her stealing fentanyl. Authorities said Moonda and Bradford started a sexual relationship after meeting and she bought him expensive gifts.
No contest
Moonda pleaded no contest to the Mercer County drug charges and was admitted into a probation program for first-time offenders. As part of that probation, she is not permitted to leave the county without her probation officer's consent.
Epstein said she violated probation by leaving the county the day her husband died. Federal prosecutors contend she met Bradford in Lawrence County to give him a map of the route the Moondas were taking through Ohio. The federal charges are also a violation of the probation, he said.
She is being held without bond in Ohio, and a grand jury is expected to meet sometime in the next two weeks to decide whether she will face more charges in her husband's death.
Epstein said she will be returned to federal custody after her probation violation hearing.
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