A SELF-PUBLISHED romance novelist who once wrote an online essay called How To Murder Your Husband has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering her husband.

Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, was convicted of second-degree murder on 25 May after a seven-week trial. Her sentence includes the possibility of parole after 25 years in custody, KGW-TV reported.

Prosecutors said Crampton Brophy shot Dan Brophy, 63, at the now-closed Oregon Culinary Institute in Portland because she stood to gain financially from his life insurance payout.

The case drew national attention because of the essay Crampton Brophy had written years earlier, but the piece was not permitted as evidence at trial.

The prosecution told jurors the couple had been facing financial difficulties at the time of the murder in 2018, and said she had researched and purchased a “ghost gun” kit online and then later bought a Glock 17 handgun at a gun show.

Crampton Brophy’s lawyer argued the state’s evidence was circumstantial, disputed the claims of financial trouble and brought in witnesses who gave evidence about the couple’s strong and loving relationship.

Crampton Brophy also gave evidence and said she and her husband had both bought life insurance policies as part of their retirement planning and had a plan to reduce their debt.

She also said her research into ghost guns was in preparation for a novel.