AKRON, Ohio -- Donna Moonda is guilty of adultery, drug abuse and being a naive housewife, but she is innocent of her husband's murder, her lawyer said yesterday in his opening statement to jurors.

		A guide to the Moonda case Previous Post-Gazette articles, photos and graphics, plus federal court documents, are available on our Moonda index page. Listen in Staff writer Milan Simonich reports from Akron, Ohio, that the opening statements have been completed in the Moonda trial.

Mrs. Moonda's lover, 25-year-old Damian Bradford, shot and killed her husband, Dr. Gulam Moonda, on the Ohio Turnpike in May 2005. Mr. Bradford says he and Mrs. Moonda, 48, were partners in the crime, which they hoped would look like a highway robbery.

Mr. Bradford, who pleaded guilty last year to fatally shooting Dr. Moonda, has told police they planned to share millions of dollars in inheritance.

Roger Synenberg, Mrs. Moonda's lead attorney, told the jury a different story as he outlined his case. He said Mr. Bradford -- a small-time drug dealer and full-time manipulator -- committed the murder all by himself.

Mr. Synenberg barely touched on the fact that Mrs. Moonda watched from close range as Mr. Bradford shot her husband in the face. Soon after, she would tell police she had no idea who the killer was.

"The whole event took maybe 10 seconds," Mr. Synenberg said in trying to explain how Mrs. Moonda could have failed to identify the killer as the man she had been seeing romantically for almost a year.

Mrs. Moonda, of Mercer County, Pa., sat attentively, often jotting notes, as her lawyer alternately described her as a bright woman with a master's degree and a middle-aged patsy for devious Mr. Bradford.

"They fell in love. Donna fell in love with Damian. Damian fell in love with Donna's money," Mr. Synenberg said.

He told jurors that Mr. Bradford will be out of prison when he is 39 years old, according to the terms of his plea agreement with prosecutors. Mrs. Moonda could face a death sentence if she is convicted of masterminding the crime.

To be sure, Mr. Synenberg said, she was cheating on her 69-year-old husband, a successful urologist. She also lavished gifts on Mr. Bradford, funneling $8,000 to him in the first two months of their affair, Mr. Synenberg said.

But Mrs. Moonda had no motive to kill her husband, Mr. Synenberg said.

He said Dr. Moonda learned of her affair in December 2004 through a phone call from Charlene McFrazier, Mr. Bradford's young fiancee. The Moondas began talking about a divorce.

Mr. Synenberg said the doctor nonetheless agreed to give Mrs. Moonda a $1 million settlement -- four times the amount she was entitled to under their prenuptial agreement.

Dr. Moonda, though, never filed for divorce. His wife continued to live with him and she continued to see Mr. Bradford three or four times a week.

All that changed was her generosity with Mr. Bradford. Mr. Synenberg said the gifts she handed him began to shrink.

It was then, Mr. Synenberg said, that Mr. Bradford decided to kill Dr. Moonda. Mr. Bradford knew that the doctor, Mrs. Moonda and her mother were driving from Western Pennsylvania to the Toledo, Ohio, area on May 13, 2005.

He followed them and shot Dr. Moonda after Mrs. Moonda abruptly pulled the family Jaguar into an emergency lane of the turnpike near Cleveland.

Only when federal prosecutors had an air-tight case against Mr. Bradford did he implicate Mrs. Moonda, her lawyer said.

"Damian Bradford realized he was trapped. He was cornered and he held the key to his self-preservation," Mr. Synenberg said.

In the prosecution's opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Kelley described Mrs. Moonda as a lying, conniving woman who had her husband murdered so she could get his money.

Ms. Kelley said Mrs. Moonda in 2003 was caught stealing painkillers from the hospital where she worked as a nurse anesthetist.

Fired from her job and facing a criminal charge, Mrs. Moonda entered a Gateway drug rehabilitation center in Beaver County, Pa.

Mr. Bradford, who had a cocaine addiction, was there too. He began "a rehab romance" with Mrs. Moonda that was laced with lies, Ms. Kelley said.

Mrs. Moonda told him she was 31 years old. In truth, she was 45. Then, using her maiden name of Donna Smouse, she listed herself as a cohabitant of the apartment where Mr. Bradford lived.

Her string of lies continued on the evening of the murder, Ms. Kelley said.

The Moondas stopped for dinner at a store on the turnpike. Mrs. Moonda would later tell police that her husband must have flashed his wallet, bulging with $50 bills, and attracted the attention of the highway robber.

The problem with her story, Ms. Kelley said, is that Dr. Moonda did not have possession of his wallet. Mrs. Moonda was carrying his wallet in her purse -- a fact established by surveillance tapes in the store.

Minutes later, when Mrs. Moonda suddenly pulled off the turnpike, she still had the wallet. Mr. Bradford, who was trailing, stopped his car when Mrs. Moonda pulled her Jaguar off the road.

After he killed Dr. Moonda, Mr. Bradford has said, Mrs. Moonda concocted a cover-up. She told police she could not tell if the killer was black or white because, she said, he was wearing a knit cap and a head-to-toe black outfit.

But she was certain he was her husband's height -- 5 feet 3 inches. Mr. Bradford is black and about 6 feet tall.

Prosecutors yesterday played a tape of Mrs. Moonda's lengthy interview with a highway trooper hours after the murder.

She said she heard "a muffled pop" but did not realize her husband had been shot until her mother told her.

"We gave him the wallet. Why did he have to do that?" Mrs. Moonda asked the trooper. Then she began crying uncontrollably.

Prosecutors say her tears were an act, her sadness faked.

Ms. Kelley said she will show the jurors cell phone tracking records that prove Mrs. Moonda met with Mr. Bradford the day of the killing, and that they exchanged text messages as they traveled separately from Pennsylvania to Ohio. Some of these messages, Ms. Kelley said, were sent when they were within a block or two of one another.

Prosecutors yesterday also offered a witness, Robert Hudson, who testified that he saw the Moondas' Jaguar pull off the turnpike with a sport utility vehicle on its tail.

Mr. Hudson, an Air Force reservist now serving abroad, told his story on videotape. He said the Moondas' car and the vehicle following it appeared to be acting in concert as they zipped across three lanes of the turnpike and entered the emergency parking area at the same time.

Mr. Hudson learned later that Dr. Moonda had been in the Jaguar and that somebody shot him dead. He went to the highway patrol and told them about the odd maneuvering of the two cars. His testimony implied that Mrs. Moonda had to know another vehicle was right with her as she stopped.

As for Mr. Bradford, Ms. Kelley said sinister crimes are not carried out by good people.

She said Mr. Bradford would not be her choice as a prosecution witness. But, Ms. Kelley said, he was Donna Moonda's choice to murder her husband.

Testimony resumes today and will continue for at least two weeks.