New details emerged on Tuesday in the case against Kirby G. Bradford, who is accused of killing Robert Bruso, of Palermo, last year.
During a morning hearing, Assistant Attorney General Mark Rucci said police found a note in the garbage of a workspace that belonged to Bradford that contained a “reasonably detailed” diagram of Bruso’s property.
The note also had a list of what Rucci characterized as “things to get or actions to accomplish”. These included “stun gun, bring him someplace out of sight, zip ties,” Rucci said.
Justice Patrick Larson granted the prosecution’s motion to have a sample of Bradford’s handwriting taken to compare with the note. He said that the question of whether the sample would be admissible as evidence would be resolved at a later date.
Police allege that Bradford, 59, shot Bruso to death on or around Feb. 8, 2025. Bruso, a contractor, was 56 at the time of his death. The two men had known each other for more than 20 years.
Very little information about the case has been made public in the year since Bruso was killed. The case’s affidavit, which typically lays out at least some of the central facts of a case, has been impounded by the court, which prevents information contained in the document from being viewed by the public.
Bradford was indicted in November for murder in Bruso’s killing. In March, he was indicted on a second charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
At the hearing on Tuesday, Larson ruled that Bradford would be tried separately on the two charges after Bradford’s lawyer, Jeremy Pratt, argued that it could be prejudicial to try them together.
Pratt said that if the state proved that a person prohibited from possessing a firearm did indeed possess one, the jury could “unfairly conclude” that that person had the firearm to commit a criminal act.
Bruso’s body was found on his property in April 2025, after police responded to a request for a wellness check. Bruso’s friends and family did not hear from him for weeks starting in early 2025. His dog Lennie went missing and has never been found.
It took more than four months for police to arrest Bradford, who did auto-body work and had been working on Bruso’s trucks as recently as January 2025, according to Tiffany Paradis, a close friend of Bruso’s.
Bradford has a lengthy criminal record, according to his state criminal history report, starting when he was 18 and found guilty on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing government administration. Over the next several years, he was found guilty of other misdemeanors, such as carrying a concealed weapon and criminal mischief.
In 1999, he was found guilty of being a habitual motor vehicle offender, a felony, and sentenced to five years of prison, with all but three years suspended.
In July 2025, months after Bruso was found dead, Bradford was arrested and charged with possession of more than 2 grams of cocaine base. He also was charged with illegally possessing a firearm.
A month later he was arrested again after allegedly robbing a Waterville shoe store, according to his criminal history report and news reports.
He was still in jail on those charges when he was charged in September with Bruso’s killing.
Bradford is being held without bail.
