AKRON, Ohio -- Donna Moonda kept smiling in court yesterday, even as three witnesses and three tape recordings tied her to Damian Bradford, the man who murdered her husband with a bullet to the face.

		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 federal prosecutors played three tapes of Donna Moonda's conversations with Damian Bradford.

The day's most damaging witness might have been Joseph Buccelli, a car salesman from Beaver Falls. He testified that Mrs. Moonda made the $3,000 down payment on a silver Chevy TrailBlazer after she and Mr. Bradford picked out the vehicle together in November 2004. Prosecutors say Mr. Bradford was driving the TrailBlazer the evening in May 2005 when he shot Dr. Gulam Moonda on the Ohio Turnpike.

Donna Moonda witnessed her husband's murder, but told police Mr. Bradford could not have been the shooter. She said the killer was 5 feet 3 -- more than half a foot shorter than Mr. Bradford. She also said the shooter drove a black minivan with "shiny wheels," a vehicle that would not have been linked to Mr. Bradford.

Mrs. Moonda, 48, of Mercer County, Pa., is on trial for her life, accused of hiring Mr. Bradford to kill her husband.

As for Mr. Bradford, 25, he confessed to the murder last year and turned against Mrs. Moonda, with whom he had been having an affair. He hopes to serve no more than 17¹/₂ years in prison in exchange for his testimony against her.

Mrs. Moonda's defense is built around the idea that Mr. Bradford committed the killing on his own. Her lawyers say she simply did not recognize him as the shooter because he wore a disguise and killed Dr. Moonda in a matter of seconds.

Prosecutors countered yesterday with cell phone records that showed Mrs. Moonda and Mr. Bradford exchanged calls and text messages the day of the murder, May 13, 2005.

Trooper Tom Halligan, of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, said he was able to pinpoint their whereabouts and calls through tower tracking.

Some six hours before the killing, he said, Mrs. Moonda met Mr. Bradford near New Castle. Later, Trooper Halligan said, she sent Mr. Bradford a text message when she and her husband were at a turnpike store.

"I'm getting something to drink before I go. I love you," she wrote in her message to Mr. Bradford. She sent the message at 4:12 p.m. Mr. Bradford shot Dr. Moonda a little more than two hours later.

In what seemed like an unusual trial strategy, Mrs. Moonda's lawyers established that she supplied Mr. Bradford with at least $19,800 in gifts and cash in a 10-month span before the murder.

Her lead attorney, Roger Synenberg, elicited this information during cross-examination of Sgt. Dennis Goodhart of the highway patrol.

Sgt. Goodhart said Mrs. Moonda's credit card showed charges of about $3,200 for clothing for Mr. Bradford in three months. She also gave Mr. Bradford about $4,000 worth of designer luggage, $7,000 for a Land Rover vehicle and may have been providing him with cash to pay his rent and utilities.

Another witness, Cherie Mitchell, manager of an apartment building in Beaver County, said Mrs. Moonda was with Mr. Bradford when he applied to rent a two-bedroom unit in her complex in August 2004.

Sgt. Goodhart said Mrs. Moonda's generosity toward Mr. Bradford also may have involved lawbreaking. Mr. Bradford said she stole steroids from her husband's medical office and gave them to him. Mr. Bradford wanted the drugs because of an interest in bodybuilding.

Jurors for the first time heard the voice of Mr. Bradford, as prosecutors played tapes of three phone conversations he had with Mrs. Moonda after the murder.

One call came when he was in jail in June 2005. Police suspected him of killing Dr. Moonda, but at the time only could hold him for possession of the steroids, which they found in a raid on his apartment.

After his release in November 2005, Mr. Bradford called her twice in a week. Those calls were recorded through a wiretap.

On tape, Mr. Bradford loudly complained that his probation officer expected him to get a job. He said he was "struggling" financially and wanted Mrs. Moonda to give him money.

"Right now I don't have any money to put up, Damian," she said. "Nobody's giving me any help, believe me. You don't know what this family has done to me."

But, Sgt. Goodhart said, Mrs. Moonda gave him about $2,000 the following month.