A mother has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for “ambushing and injecting” her estranged ex-husband with a lethal dose of poison after he returned their children to her home.
Amanda Hovonec, 37, of Wapakoneta, Ohio, pled guilty to the murder of Timothy Hovanec before a district court on Tuesday.
Investigators obtained dashcam footage from the victim’s car, which showed her dragging him to the ground before injecting him in the shoulder with M99, an anesthetic used on rhinos and other zoo animals that is up to 3,000 times stronger than morphine.
The 36-year-old father of three, who worked as a US State Department researcher, was returning the couple’s children after they stayed with him during a weekend visit on the evening of April 24, court documents said.
Timothy’s employment required them to live in South Africa from 2018 to 2020, during which time Hovonec had an affair with Saffa Anthony Theodorou. The couple split shortly after their return to the United States in 2020.
The court heard that at about 7 p.m., Hovonec and her mother, Anita Green, were waiting outside the garage outside her house when her father drove into the driveway.
According to prosecutors, the mother approached the car and informed her children, “I have a surprise for you inside.”
According to a sentencing brief, as Green led the children inside, Hovonec jumped on her ex-husband in her driveway while he was unloading the children’s car seats.
“What in the Hell are you doing? Have you just assaulted me?” Timothy could be heard wailing in an audio recording obtained by the car’s dash cam and provided to investigators. “Get away from me… get off of me.”
Hovanec was seen grabbing her ex-husband’s shirt and wrestling with him as he attempted to pick up his smartphone, according to officials.
She took the victim to the ground and held him by the neck until his body went limp and he lost consciousness, according to prosecutors.
According to authorities, after stealing his phone and watches, Hovanec turned off the vehicle’s engine and, with it, the dashcam.
According to court documents, she placed a plastic bag over the victim’s head and corpse to prevent “fluids from secreting” from his remains.
Hovanec told detectives that she injected her ex-partner in the shoulder with M99. Prosecutors say she knew the poison would kill him in minutes.
The defendant further revealed where she claimed to have obtained the poison: Theodorou.
The paramour, who had traveled to Ohio at the time of the murder, not only allegedly supplied the M-99, but also admitted to digging a shallow grave the day before Timothy died.
According to a probable cause statement, Green drove the couple to the burial site on April 25 at a farm once owned by the defendant’s grandparents.
Green’s taxiing of Hovonec and Theodorou led to the “inescapable conclusion that she helped facilitate a murder,” according to District Judge James Knepp II.
“Hovanec’s aggressive and deliberate actions were cold-blooded, premeditated, and merciless. Her heinous cruelty to her husband and blatant disregard for how his murder will affect their innocent children is incomprehensible and reprehensible,” said US Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio in a statement released on Tuesday.
“We understand that no amount of time spent can restore a family’s loved one. But we hope that the victim’s family can find some solace as they fight tirelessly to recover from this inconceivable and horrible catastrophe.”
The defendant’s mother, Green, pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the offenses done by Hovanec and Theodorou. She was sentenced to ten years in jail, followed by two years on supervised release. She was forced to repay $2,108,559 in restitution.
Hovanec’s lover, Theodorou, is expected to be sentenced on Thursday.