Man previously convicted in murder-for-hire case found guilty of shooting state trooper in Pennsylvania

A man who served time in a high-profile murder-for-hire case in Ohio nearly two decades ago has been convicted of shooting a state trooper in a western Pennsylvania convenience store last year.

Jurors in Beaver County last week deliberated for more than five hours before convicting 42-year-old Damian Bradford of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangering and firearms counts. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 29.

Prosecutors said troopers on patrol saw Bradford pull a gun and confront people outside an Aliquippa minimart in July 2022. They allege he “violently struggled” with troopers trying to arrest him in the store, shooting a trooper in the leg and trying to grab another trooper’s gun and stun device.

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“We’re very disappointed and I’m sure he’s going to be looking into appeals,” defense attorney William Difenderfer said.

Bradford had been released from prison in 2021 after serving about a decade in a half in a high-profile murder-for-hire case that began in Beaver County and ended on the Ohio Turnpike. He pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the shooting death of 69-year-old Dr. Gulam Moonda on the Ohio Turnpike in May 2005.

Prosecutors said Moonda’s wife, Donna, met Bradford in a drug rehabilitation center, and the two plotted to kill the prominent Mercer County doctor, with Bradford promised half of the multimillion-dollar estate. Donna Moonda was convicted in federal court in 2007 of murder-for-hire and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.