Dan Brophy’s students found his body, they testified at the trial of his wife Nancy Crampton Brophy

Portland chef and instructor Dan Brophy often unlocks the door to the Oregon Culinary Institute after entering and turning off the alarm. So when students started coming to class on June 2, 2018, they knew something was wrong.

The door is still locked. Unbeknownst to the students who had gathered outside the building that morning, the beloved cook was dead inside: murdered, Multnomah County Prosecutors allege, by his romantic novelist’s wife. Mr. Nancy Crampton Brophy.

“We’ve been waiting a long time,” said Clarinda Perez, who took the stance in the Crampton Brophy test, which began Monday. “Typically Chef Brophy would be there, the coffee would be brewed, the lights would come on and everything was ready to go to class… I just thought maybe he was getting the ingredients for us.”

It wasn’t until another instructor let Perez and her classmates in that she discovered the truth and background of her mentor.

“I saw Chef Brophy on the floor,” said Perez, choking and visibly shaking in the witness stand. “He was lying on the floor by the sink. The water has flowed, the lights are on. ”

She said Perez used to work as a medical assistant, so she quickly touched Brophy to see if she could get a response from him, then ran to a doorway and yelled for someone. Call 911, before returning to perform CPR. At that point, she thought Brophy might have fallen. Little did she know he had been shot twice, once in the back and once in the front, both bullets going through his heart.

“My friend Miranda came over and calmed me down. She just said, ‘Do what you know how to do,’ and she called everyone out of the kitchen for me,” said Perez. “His chest was really tight. I thought I had broken a bone. ribs”.

Perez continued to bandage her, until the blood from Brophy’s gunshot wound began seeping into her hand. She then heard one of the paramedics mention a gunshot wound, and learned that her teacher had been shot.

Perez gave the most emotional testimony in a dry day of state witnesses in the trial, which is expected to last seven weeks but prosecutors say it could take significantly less time. Bang has a pretty circumstantial set of evidence to recommend, but they say the motive for paying the insurance, the footage of Crampton Brophy driving to and from the crime scene just before and after the murder and her purchase a gun identical to the one used in the shooting along with a spool and barrel that may have been traded in disguise, ballistics experts will be able to convince the jury of a verdict sin.

Crampton Brophy’s defense, as introduced by her attorney Monday, will rely heavily on her writing preferences and the couple’s generally happy marriage. Her lawyers said research on guns and gun parts was based on an idea she had for a novel. And she loved her husband so much that she wanted to kill him, they argued, adding that Crampton Brophy would take a stand and speak for herself as the trial progresses. .

Based on the testimony so far, Dan Brophy has only admirers, not enemies. “He’s not a jerk,” Perez said. “He pushed us to reach our full potential and he was very interested in everything he showed us and taught us.” Miranda Bernhard, another student who testified on Tuesday, added, “He was a really great instructor. He’s completely oriented towards nature and feeding and we’ll talk a lot about gardening.”