Taxpayers spent almost $483,000 to provide a legal defense for Donna Moonda, the Pennsylvania woman convicted last summer of arranging her husband's murder on the Ohio Turnpike.

U.S. District Judge David Dowd of Akron, Ohio, this afternoon released a summary of the costs, which were billed to the public because Mrs. Moonda said she could not afford to defend herself.

Federal prosecutors said Mrs. Moonda, 48, ordered the execution of her husband, Dr. Gulam Moonda, in hopes of collecting millions in life insurance and inheritance. But after Mrs. Moonda's 26-year-old lover shot and killed Dr. Moonda in May 2005, she became a suspect and could not gain access to her husband's money.

An investigator, a psychologist and other defense experts who testified during her month-long trial cost about $44,000, according to Judge Dowd's report, which did not itemize all costs.

But the three lawyers who represented Mrs. Moonda received the bulk of the public money spent on her defense -- about $439,000.

Her lead attorney, Roger Synenberg of Cleveland, collected about $210,000 in fees. Attorney Larry Whitney received about $70,000, and the third defense lawyer, David L. Grant, was paid about $60,000.

The lawyers received additional money for travel and other expenses.

Mr. Grant worked primarily on the penalty phase of her trial, in which jurors decided to send Mrs. Moonda to prison for the rest of her life instead of imposing a death sentence.

Damian Bradford, the man she hired to kill her 69-year-old husband, is serving a 17 1/2-year sentence.

Mr. Bradford, who was from Center, Pa., fired a bullet into Dr. Moonda's face after Mrs. Moonda abruptly pulled off the turnpike. Mr. Bradford, who had been seeing Mrs. Moonda romantically for a year, said they tried to make Dr. Moonda's murder look like a random highway robbery.

Mr. Bradford initially claimed to be innocent, but he admitted his guilt and implicated Mrs. Moonda after she said she would take the Fifth Amendment rather than testify at his trial.

Mr. Bradford said he killed out of greed and planned to leave Donna Moonda after they collected the inheritance. He did not know Dr. Moonda, who practiced urology in Hermitage, Pa., for 35 years and gave generously to charities in the United States and in his native India.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.