An Ohio woman was sentenced this week to 40 years in prison for assaulting her estranged husband by injecting him with animal tranquilizers and burying his body, some of which was recorded on her dashcam. It had been.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio announced in a statement Tuesday that Amanda Hovanek, 37, of Wapakoneta, has pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death.
Prosecutors allege she killed Timothy Hovanek in 2022 to prevent him from seeing his children.
Timothy Hovanek’s boyfriend, Anthony Theodore, and his mother, Anita Green, who were also indicted federally in the death, admitted to contributing to the death and helping dispose of the body.
Prosecutors said the divorced Hovaneks had three children. Prosecutors said she filed for divorce in 2020 and then began denying her husband and children access, even though a court order allowed it.
In April 2022, a judge ordered the children to be allowed visitation with their father and also ordered that the father be their residential parent and legal guardian for two months that summer.
On April 24, 2022, Amanda Hovanek injected M-99, also known as etorphine, a controlled substance approximately 1,000 times more powerful than morphine, into her husband’s shoulder, prosecutors said. Audio of the attack, which occurred shortly after Timothy Hovanek dropped his children off at his wife’s house, was recorded on the dashcam of his Volkswagen Tiguan, according to an affidavit supporting the criminal charges against Hovanek. .
Green was at the home and entered with the children when Amanda Hovanek told them there was a surprise waiting for them, according to the affidavit.
The victim, identified only as TH in the affidavit, can be heard saying on the dashcam video: Did you just attack me? ” According to the affidavit. “Please stay away from me.”
Amanda Hovanek was then seen in the passenger seat of the car, pulling on her hands and shirt as she tried to reach for her cell phone, according to the affidavit. She pushed him to the ground, held him by the neck without choking him, and supported him until his body went limp in the driveway, according to the affidavit and prosecutors.
“Hovanek’s violent and deliberate actions were cold-blooded, calculated and cruel. It is understood that she had extreme malice towards her husband and a complete disregard for the impact her husband’s murder would have on her innocent children. This cannot be done and cannot be tolerated,” U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko said in a statement.
Hovanek later told authorities that she knew the drug would kill her husband “within minutes,” according to the affidavit.
Lawyers on Mr. Hovanek’s list could not be reached for comment Thursday. Court records show Green fired several attorneys. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison and two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to being an accessory to the crime.
Teodor, who was charged with distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance resulting in death, was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $2 million in restitution. His lawyer said he was ordered to do so. Steve Palmer.
“The whole thing was tragic. He’s happy this was finalized in the interest of the case,” Palmer said.
Prosecutors say that when Amanda Hovanek spoke to investigators on April 27, 2022, she admitted to killing her husband, abandoning his car in Dayton and burying his body in the woods not far from their home. It is said that Theodore obtained the substance used to kill the victim and also helped Hovanek bury her husband’s body, according to the affidavit.
Theodore told investigators that Hovanek had been discussing killing her husband about a year ago because she felt it was “the only way to prevent her children from spending the summer with their father,” according to the affidavit. said.
Authorities discovered Timothy Hovanek’s body on April 28, 2022.
Green told investigators that she knew her daughter had plans to “do something” to her husband, but she didn’t think she would go through with it. She also said she knew she was in deep water when she drove her daughter and Theodore to the burial site, the affidavit states.
“I knew we were driving at the time and it stopped…now I’m in this situation,” she said.
