CREDIT RIVER, Minnesota — A Scott County woman is charged with murder after prosecutors say she fatally shot her live-in boyfriend Monday night after an evening of drinking and acting erratically.
The second-degree murder charge is outlined in a criminal complaint filed against 45-year-old Jennifer Lynn Lieber, who is accused in the death of 45-year-old David Joseph Nanovic. Nanovic was living at the defendant's home, along with his juvenile son.
Scott County sheriff's deputies were dispatched to a home on Century Lane just before 10:30 p.m. March 4 after Lieber's soon-to-be ex-husband called requesting a welfare check. Stuart Lieber reportedly told dispatchers she was acting weird, and a child inside the home claimed Jennifer Lieber said she was going to kill herself.
Arriving deputies encountered Jennifer Lieber and a friend outside the home. Lieber reportedly told the deputies she "really F#*#ed up" and went back inside the home, while her friend said she feared David Nanovic was dead as she had spotted him at the bottom of the stairs covered in blood.
Deputies talked Lieber into coming out of the house, then located Nanovic's body with a handgun next to it. Paramedics declared him dead on the scene. A 10-year-old boy who identified himself as Nanovic's son was found inside the pool house and brought to safety.
The boy told investigators that he and his father were allowed to stay at the house and that Nanovic and Lieber started a romantic relationship. He allegedly told them they were all sitting on the couch watching TV when Lieber became agitated and grabbed a handgun, which she carried around for the rest of the night.
Prosecutors say Nanovic's son said Lieber was drinking beer and blackberry brandy all night, and that she was yelling insults and racial slurs at the victim. The boy reportedly told detectives Lieber physically abused his father and described the home as "living in hell."
The 10-year-old shared that he and his father retreated to the pool house, where they were soon joined by two of Lieber's biological children who said their mother was acting crazy. Eventually, the boy stated, his father went back up to the main house with his hands raised. That was the last time he saw his father alive.
Lieber's friend, who met deputies on the scene, was interviewed and reportedly told police the defendant had called her in a panic, saying there was blood everywhere "and it's not my fault." Lieber told her friend that Nanovic came at her with a gun, she kicked it, and the gun went off.
Jennifer Lieber was arrested but refused to make an official statement. An autopsy on David Nanovic detailed a bullet wound on the left side of his forehead and listed a gunshot as the cause of death.
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