Alyssa Bradburn smiled after she was sentenced for shooting and killing her father, Timothy Bradburn
Credit: KREM 2 News/YouTube
NEED TO KNOW
- On June 25, 2024, Alyssa Bradburn fatally shot her dad, Timothy Bradburn, four times in their Spokane, Wash., home
- She was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 28 years in prison
- In videos from the sentencing, Alyssa smiled while the judge condemned her actions and revealed her fate
Alyssa Bradburn allegedly plotted for weeks to murder her father, Timothy Bradburn.
In June 2024, Alyssa, who was 31 years old at the time, waited for her 68-year-old dad to return from a trip to Hawaii to their Spokane, Wash., home. Just seconds after her dad walked through the front door, she shot him four times.
Alyssa proceeded to call 911 and confessed to shooting and killing her father. Although she initially claimed that her dad was abusive and she shot him out of self-defense, she later dropped that claim and said she was "guilty."
During her February 2026 trial, witnesses came forward to reveal that Alyssa had journaled about her plans to kill her father and purposely left them at the scene for police to find. The trial also exposed how Alyssa practiced shooting a gun at a local range in the weeks prior.
Alyssa was ultimately convicted of killing her father and was sentenced to 28 years in prison on April 2. In chilling videos from the sentencing, Alyssa — who has an undisclosed mental illness, according to her defense attorney — was seen smiling at the judge and nodding toward her attorneys.
Here's what to know about Alyssa Bradburn and why she killed her father, Timothy Bradburn.
Who is Alyssa Bradburn?
Credit: KREM 2 News/YouTube
Alyssa was born on July 18, 1992, and was raised in Spokane, Wash., by her parents, Timothy and Garland Bradburn, according to her arrest report.
Alyssa's older brother, Trace Bradburn, testified at her trial and recalled how Alyssa lived in their parents' house, which eventually started to become hers, as the Spokesman-Review reported at the time. Over time, they gave her the primary bedroom as they started to travel more.
“They wanted her to be successful and they would do anything they had to help make sure that would happen, whether that’s financial, emotional, whatever kind of support she needed,” Trace said.
He added that Timothy and Garland, who died from lung cancer in 2019, "would do anything" for their daughter.
Who was Timothy Bradburn?
Timothy was a 68-year-old father. Trace described their family as a "close" and "loving" unit who frequently spent time together.
He said that his father traveled with him for sports matches when he was younger, and he supported Alyssa with a "sword-fighting thing that they did together."
"My father was everything to me," Trace reiterated at his sister's sentencing, per the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
What happened to Timothy?
On June 25, 2024, Timothy was returning to his Spokane home from a trip to his Hawaii condo a little after midnight. He was still holding his keys and luggage when Alyssa shot him four times.
After making sure Timothy was dead, Alyssa called 911 and told the dispatchers that she had shot her father three times — twice in the chest and once in the head — according to the Spokane Police Department. However, a later autopsy showed that he was shot four times.
She relayed that his body was in the entryway of the home and that she'd be sitting outside on the front porch waiting for police, according to her arrest affidavit. The arriving officer described her as "cooperative" and placed her under arrest.
When police arrived, Alyssa told them the gun she used was in a drawer inside the home. She further told officers that she wanted to turn herself in and "not make this difficult," per the affidavit. In addition to presenting them with the gun, Alyssaa also gave officers her cell phone, a journal and a book with her doctors' and therapist's phone numbers.
"My journal has my confession and everything in it," she told one of the arresting officers.
Alyssa continued admitting to her guilt in the police interrogation and added, "I was gonna shoot him in the front room, when he came through the door there, I was gonna put the dogs in the back laundry room so the gun blasts wouldn’t hurt them and so they wouldn’t do anything to the crime scene, so they were safe there and I put earplugs in, and it’s kind of the gist of it."
Alyssa said she watched as her dad got dropped off in an Uber and walked to the door with his luggage. After he walked inside, she shot him in the chest and in the head to "make sure" that he was dead.
Why did Alyssa shoot her father?
At the time of her arrest, Alyssa alleged that Timothy had been abusive to both herself and her dogs, so she had acted in self-defense. She told investigators, "he beats on the dogs; he beats on me."
“He never quite hurt me for a long time," Alyssa said in her interrogation, per the affidavit. "He raped me when I was a baby girl. I blocked up the memory for so long."
She further claimed that she slept in a bedroom with her dogs and a gun, in case he came in the night. Alyssa also alleged that Timothy had shot the dogs with BB guns.
However, Trace later took the stand and said that he had no knowledge of his father abusing Alyssa and never saw him hurting the pets. Trace said that before Timothy's death, he told his son that Alyssa "was having weird memories" and expressed concern about her. Investigators also didn't find evidence to support her claims.
"My dad was an amazing man, and he never did anything to hurt anybody," Trace said, according to KREM. "Whether that's physical, sexual, he would never have done that. Anyone who knows my father, my family, would attest to that … so that, it just breaks my heart."
Alyssa's attorney further said that his client was "neurodivergent" and "mentally ill."
"Ms. Bradburn suffers from a state where she sometimes blurs fantasy with reality," defense attorney Brian Raymon said, per KXLY. Alyssa also withdrew her claims of abuse by the end of the trial.
What happened to Alyssa?
Credit: KREM 2 News/YouTube
Shortly after Alyssa called the police to report her actions, she was arrested. Although she initially claimed she acted in self-defense, police discovered evidence — including how she locked the dogs in the laundry room beforehand, practiced shooting at a gun range and her own confession — that supported the murder being premeditated.
“Bradburn said she began planning to kill her father about three weeks prior and began journaling about it four days prior,” the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said in a statement. “The State argued that Bradburn’s premeditated murder against a close family member was not an impulsive act but a deliberate decision to kill, adding that Bradburn exhibited an extreme and elaborate degree of planning in carrying out the killing.”
She was charged with first-degree murder with a firearm and remained in jail under a $1 million bail until her trial, per KXLY. Her trial began on Feb. 25, 2026, with prosecutors arguing that she deliberately killed her father, while her attorneys pointed out that she called 911 right after she shot him.
"She shot him twice in the chest, once in the arm, and once in the forehead, just to make absolutely sure he was dead. Timothy Bradburn would be pronounced dead at the scene," Samantha Wright, the prosecuting attorney said, per KREM.
On March 4, a jury found Alyssa guilty of first-degree murder. After her verdict was read, Alyssa smiled and recanted that she acted in self-defense by saying, "I didn’t need to defend myself."
“I killed Tim Bradburn, and I am guilty,” Alyssa said, per the Spokesman-Review. “I’m not afraid anymore. I’m okay with going to prison for however long.”
She continued, “I just wanted to own this and take ownership, and that’s part of the reason for this trial as a whole. I didn’t like the idea of just taking a plea and slinking off, that didn’t feel fair to everyone involved.”
She was sentenced to 28 years in prison on April 2. After she was sentenced, Alyssa was seen smiling at the judge, her attorneys and the people watching.
"Throughout the trial Bradburn sat stoically, often smiling, and during her testimony said she enjoyed the trial experience but that she deserved to be punished and would accept her sentence," the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney's Office wrote.
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