AKRON, Ohio -- Donna Moonda met with Damian Bradford six hours before he shot and killed her husband, her lawyers conceded yesterday during her murder trial.

		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 said Donna Moonda had 15 text messages and eight phone calls to and from Damian Bradford.

Mrs. Moonda, of Mercer County, Pa., also exchanged eight cell phone calls and 15 text messages with Mr. Bradford the day of the murder. One call that Mr. Bradford placed to her lasted 52 minutes, phone records show.

Mrs. Moonda, 48, was a witness to the shooting death of her husband after she suddenly stopped their Jaguar along the Ohio Turnpike. She told investigators that a mysterious robber dressed all in black killed Dr. Gulam Moonda. The only conclusion she was confident of, she said, was that the gunman could not have been 25-year-old Mr. Bradford, with whom she was having an affair.

But Mr. Bradford has since confessed to killing Dr. Moonda and become a witness for federal prosecutors.

He has yet to testify in Mrs. Moonda's trial, but he has told a grand jury and police that she hired him to commit the murder so both could enrich themselves. He says they intended to share inheritance left by Dr. Moonda, who was a urologist in Mercer County for 35 years.

Mrs. Moonda's defense is built around the theme that Mr. Bradford committed the murder on his own. Her lawyers contend that Mr. Bradford disguised himself so thoroughly that Mrs. Moonda did not recognize him, even though she had been seeing him romantically for a year.

The defense team yesterday tried to downplay the meeting and phone calls between Mrs. Moonda and Mr. Bradford on the day of the killing, May 13, 2005. Roger Synenberg, her lead attorney, said there was nothing unusual about the two of them seeing one another and talking throughout the day on their cell phones.

While questioning Trooper Tom Halligan of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Mr. Synenberg focused on a wide span of phone records. Mr. Synenberg pointed to an 85-minute call between Mrs. Moonda and Mr. Bradford on March 2, 2005, as an example of them often having lengthy conversations.

Mr. Synenberg also said that exchanging 23 calls and messages in a day was normal for Mrs. Moonda and Mr. Bradford.

But Mr. Synenberg may have made a mistake when he pointed out that they exchanged 60 calls and messages on another day. U.S. District Judge David Dowd asked what day he was talking about, and Mr. Synenberg said it was May 7, 2005.

"Six days before the homicide?" Judge Dowd asked.

Mr. Synenberg quietly agreed that was the correct date, realizing that so many calls so close to the murder might indicate plotting between Mrs. Moonda and Mr. Bradford.

In various text messages to Mr. Bradford the day of the murder, Mrs. Moonda professed her love for him. One said: "As a white girl would say, my eyes are only for you. I love you."

After the murder, Mrs. Moonda sent another message to Mr. Bradford, "Something terrible has happened. I don't know where to start," she said.

Police labeled Mr. Bradford "a person of interest" in Dr. Moonda's killing only a week after the crime, but they did not charge him for 10 months. Even aware that police were watching him, Mr. Bradford says, he spent several days with Mrs. Moonda at Christmas time 2005. He stayed with her in the spacious house that she had shared with Dr. Moonda.

Prosecutors called Abelina Flati of Aliquippa, who testified that she drove Mr. Bradford to the Moonda home in late December 2005. She said Donna Moonda was not home when she and Mr. Bradford arrived. But Mrs. Moonda drove in a few minutes later.

Ms. Flati said she watched as Mrs. Moonda hugged Mr. Bradford. Then Ms. Flati drove home, leaving the two of them together.

Prosecutors also called a witness who testified about Mrs. Moonda's drug problems and the destruction of her nursing career.

Ronald Barnes, a pharmacist at UPMC Horizon in Mercer County, said hospital staff members caught Mrs. Moonda stealing painkillers in March 2004. Hospital executives fired her and the district attorney in Mercer County filed criminal charges against her.

Mr. Synenberg previously told the jury that Mrs. Moonda was "self-medicating" because of extended sadness over her father's death in 1998 and other family problems.

Prosecutors brought out that Mrs. Moonda lost her nursing license after stealing the drugs, decreasing her chances of earning money had she divorced her husband.

After the drug scandal, Mrs. Moonda entered a Gateway drug rehabilitation center in Beaver County. It was there that she met Mr. Bradford, who also was a patient. By December 2004, he says, they were planning to murder Gulam Moonda.

Mrs. Moonda often took notes and whispered to her lawyers during yesterday's testimony. But at the end of the day, after the jurors had gone, she broke down and cried. Four members of her family were still in court, and they exchanged long looks with Mrs. Moonda.

Mrs. Moonda said nothing as she looked at them. She bit her lip but could not hold back tears.

She will be back in court Monday when prosecutors resume their case. Mrs. Moonda's lawyers have not said whether she will testify, or whether they will put on a defense.