A Washington state woman was sentenced to 340 months in prison, roughly 28 years, after a Spokane County jury found her guilty of first-degree murder with a firearm enhancement in the 2024 killing of her father, Timothy Bradburn. Alyssa Bradburn, 33, was given the term on April 2 in Spokane County Superior Court. Prosecutors noted that she showed little emotion during the trial, remaining stoic and sometimes smiling. During her testimony she said she “enjoyed” the trial process but believed she deserved punishment and would accept her sentence. “I killed Tim Bradburn, and I am guilty,” she told jurors, smiling, according to the Spokesman-Review. “I’m not afraid anymore. I’m OK with going to prison for however long.”
Bradburn called 911 on June 25, 2024, reporting that she had shot her father as he returned home from a trip to Hawaii, telling dispatchers that his body was in the entryway of their Northwest Spokane home and that she would be waiting outside for police. Investigators say Timothy Bradburn was ambushed as he walked through the front door, still holding his suitcase and keys. Bradburn told detectives she believed she had shot him three times—twice in the chest and once in the head to ensure he was dead, though an autopsy later determined he had been shot four times. Prosecutors described the killing as deliberate.
Bradburn admitted she began planning to kill her father weeks in advance, practicing with the firearm inside the home and getting help loading it at a gun range. She also kept a journal about the plan in the days leading up to the shooting. “The evidence demonstrated an extreme and elaborate degree of planning,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Emily Sullivan said.
Bradburn initially claimed she acted in self-defense, alleging her father had abused her and her dogs, but she later withdrew those accusations. During sentencing, her brother, Trace Bradburn, described the devastating impact of the loss and pushed back on the earlier allegations, saying they had unfairly damaged his father’s memory. “My father was everything to me,” he said, adding that his dad was an amazing man who never did the things he had been accused of.
