Inset top: Lisa Bradford (Dulles Area Association of Realtors). Inset bottom: Roger Bradford (DMK Project Solutions/WTTG/YouTube). Background: The Home Depot where authorities say the suspect stopped on the day of the alleged killing (WTTG/YouTube).
The man police say plotted to shoot his wife before carrying out the act made a striking first appearance in a Virginia courtroom this week.
Roger Bradford, 60, now faces murder and firearm‑in‑a‑felony charges in the death of his 54‑year‑old wife, Lisa Bradford, according to a Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office announcement on Sept. 22.
The defendant appeared virtually from the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center on Wednesday, as regional Fox affiliate WTTG reported. He didn’t shy away from speaking, declaring he would represent himself because, “I don’t trust lawyers, they are the worst criminals.”
“I’ll make it easy on you,” he added. “I don’t want no bond hearing. I’m right where I need to be.”
At that moment, the judge asked him to stop talking.
Roger Bradford then pressed for clarification on the murder charge, noting that court documents listed a second‑degree murder accusation, not first‑degree. The judge confirmed the arrest records showed second‑degree murder, while prosecutors signaled they intend to pursue a first‑degree murder charge based on the evidence gathered so far.
Investigators say the evidence points to Sept. 22, when Bradford allegedly stopped at a storage facility in Ashburn, Virginia, to retrieve .45‑caliber ammunition, then drove about 12 miles south to a Home Depot in South Riding and purchased 36‑inch zip ties.
Around 9 a.m. that day, he returned to his home at the 24,000 block of Quimby Oaks Place in Aldie, Virginia,roughly 40 miles west of Washington, D.C.,and allegedly shot his wife, Lisa Bradford.
After the alleged shooting, Bradford called his sister, apologized, and asked her to pick up his teenage daughter from school so the child wouldn’t witness the scene. The sister promptly called police, who arrived to find Lisa Bradford face down on her bed, her hands bound behind her back and a pillow covering her head.
Bradford was apprehended later that day in Pennsylvania, where state police discovered a journal in his rental car containing a list of potential targets. At the top, Lisa Bradford’s name appeared, along with a note stating she was to be killed on the very day she was slain, Sept. 22, authorities allege.
Court records reveal Bradford previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud tied to a 2019 Iowa kickback scheme. He served time in prison, and in a January appeal he disclosed that he was “suicidal many nights” while incarcerated, adding, “I have had my professional reputation and relationships destroyed as a result of my felony conviction.”
“My marriage with my wife Lisa is now headed to divorce as the pressures and injustice of this nightmare took its toll on our marriage and our life together,” Bradford wrote in a January filing, noting that the likely end of his marriage “is too much to bear.”
When the court attempted to set a review hearing for Oct. 28, Bradford asked to move the date because it coincides with Lisa Bradford’s birthday, according to WTTG.
“I think I will be in psychosis that day,” the defendant added.
Leave a Reply