A 47-year-old Scott County woman convicted of fatally shooting her live-in boyfriend in 2024 has been sentenced to 25-and-a-half years in prison for second-degree intentional murder.
Jennifer Lynn Lieber was ordered to the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee and received credit for 232 days already spent in custody since her arrest. A jury found her guilty in January after a trial in Scott County District Court.
Midwest Crime previously investigated this case in the longform video ”Welfare Check Turns into Deadly Discovery.”
The shooting happened on the night of March 4, 2024, at Lieber’s home in the town of Credit River near Prior Lake. According to the criminal complaint, Scott County deputies were dispatched around 10:23 p.m. for a welfare check after Lieber’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Stuart Lieber, called saying she was acting “weird.” Dispatchers also reported that a child at the home said Lieber had threatened to kill herself.
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When deputies arrived, they were met by a friend of Lieber’s. She told officers she saw David Joseph Nanovic, 45, covered in blood and lying at the bottom of the stairs inside the home. Lieber told her friend that Nanovic had a gun and it went off when she kicked it out of his hand.
For the Full Case File, See Midwest Crime on Patreon
Deputies called Lieber on the phone and had her come outside. Inside, they found Nanovic at the bottom of the stairs covered in blood with a handgun next to his body. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene.
Deputies located the victim’s young son in the pool house on the property and brought him to safety. The boy told investigators he, his father and Lieber all lived in the home and that his father and Lieber had been in a romantic relationship.
According to the complaint, the boy said they had all been sitting on the couch watching TV that evening when Lieber became very agitated, grabbed a handgun and carried it around the rest of the night. She pointed the gun at them, threatened to kill them and directed racial slurs at Nanovic. The boy told deputies Lieber had done this before and had physically abused his father in the past. She had been drinking beer and blackberry brandy throughout the evening.
The boy described the home environment as ”living in hell.”
Still image from bodycam video of the initial welfare check | via Midwest Crime: youtu.be/6fSfqHMNvx8
Around 9:30 p.m., he and his father went to the pool house. Lieber’s juvenile children from her marriage to Stuart Lieber came down and told them their mother was acting crazy before leaving. Around 10 p.m., one of the children called asking them to check on the family’s dog. When the boy and Nanovic tried to approach the house, Lieber came outside with the handgun, told them not to come in and fired a shot.
They retreated to the pool house. Nanovic decided to try again and walked toward the house with his hands raised. It was the last time his son saw him alive.
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The boy later approached the house and could see Lieber locking all the doors.
The friend told investigators that Lieber had called her in a panic, saying there was blood everywhere and it wasn’t her fault. When the friend told Lieber to call 911, Lieber refused and said they would call when she actually arrived. Lieber also told her friend, “I loved him.”
An autopsy performed by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office on March 6, 2024, determined Nanovic died from a contact gunshot wound to the left side of his forehead. Lieber was arrested and initially refused to make a statement.
For the Full Case File, See Midwest Crime on Patreon
