After her estranged ex-husband put their kids back at her house, the mother “ambushed and injected” him with a deadly amount of poison, earning her a 40-year prison sentence.
In front of a district judge on Tuesday, Amanda Hovonec, 37, of Wapakoneta, Ohio, entered a guilty plea for the murder of Timothy Hovanec.
Dash cam footage from the victim’s automobile was obtained by investigators, showing her pushing him to the ground and then giving him an M99 injection in the shoulder. M99 is an anesthetic used on rhinos and other zoo animals that has an approximate potency of 3,000 times that of morphine.
Between 2018 to 2020, Timothy’s work required them to reside in South Africa, during which Hovonec had an affair with Saffa Anthony Theodorou. Shortly after returning to the US in 2020, the couple was divorced.
At approximately 7pm, Hovonec and her mother Anita Green were waiting outside the garage outside her apartment when the dad pulled into the drive, the court heard.
Prosecutors claim that the mother approached the car and said to her kids, “I have a surprise for you inside.”
According to a sentencing brief, Hovonec leaped on her ex-husband on her driveway as he was unloading the kids’ car seats as Green rushed the kids inside.
“What the heck are you doing? Did you just assault me?” Investigators received an audio tape from the dash cam in the automobile that showed Timothy weeping. “Get away from me… get off of me.”
As he attempted to pick up his phone, Hovanec was seen grabbing her ex-husband’s shirt and grappling with him, according to officials.
She pulled the victim to the ground and held him by the neck, according to the prosecution, until his body went limp and he passed out. After stealing his phone and smartwatch, Hovanec shut off the vehicle’s engine and, with it, the dashcam, prosecutors alleged.
According to court documents, she covered the victim’s head and body with a plastic bag out of concern that “fluids secreting” would come out of his remains. Hovanec told detectives that she had given her ex-partner an M99 injection in the shoulder. Prosecutors alleged that she knew the poison would kill him in a matter of minutes.
The defendant also admitted to having obtained the poison from Theodorou, as she had alleged.
In addition to supposedly providing the M-99, the paramour—who had left for Ohio the day before the murder—also acknowledged to having dug a shallow grave the day before Timothy passed away.
According to a probable cause document, on April 25, Green drove the two to the burial place at a farm that belonged to the defendant’s grandpa.
District Judge James Knepp II stated that Green’s taxiing of Hovonec and Theodorou was a “inescapable conclusion that she helped facilitate a murder.”
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In a statement issued on Tuesday, US Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio stated, “Hovanec’s violent and intentional actions were cold-blooded, calculated, and cruel. Her extreme malevolence toward her husband and complete disregard for how his murder would affect their innocent children is incomprehensible and unforgivable.”
“We know that no amount of time served can bring back a family’s loved one. But our hope is that the victim’s family may find some sense of closure as they painstakingly work to heal from this unimaginable and horrific tragedy.”
Mother of the defendant, Green, entered a guilty plea to aiding and abetting Hovanec and Theodorou’s actions. She received a 10-year prison term that included two years of supervised release. She was mandated to make restitution of $2,108,559 in court.
Theodorou, Hovanec’s lover, is due to be sentenced on Thursday.
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