The poison an Ohio mom used to kill her estranged husband during a bitter child custody battle was 1000 times more potent than morphine, prosecutors said.
Amanda Hovanec, 37, pleaded guilty to several charges, including distributing a controlled substance that resulted in the death of her husband, Timothy Hovanec, prosecutors announced last week.
She was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
In April 2022, the ex-couple were entangled in an explosive custody dispute involving their three daughters when Hovanec ambushed Timothy outside her Wapakoneta, Ohio, home and injected him with M-99 – also known as etorphine – an animal tranquilizer 1000 times more powerful than morphine.
The deadly attack was captured on Timothy's dash cam.
After first trying to deny her involvement to detectives, Hovanec later on admitted to injecting Timothy in the shoulder with a "'poison' that she understood would kill him within minutes," said prosecutors.
Hovanec's South African lover, Anthony Theodorou, confessed to supplying her with the etorphine and helping bury Timothy's body in the woods.
For his part, a judge sentenced him to 18 years behind bars.
During the investigation, Hovanec told detectives she contemplated killing her husband for at least a year before she followed through, and considered hiring a hitman, prior to deciding on the animal tranquilizer, according to prosecutors.
"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," U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio said in a statement.
"We know that no amount of time served can bring back a family's loved one," she added. "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."
