Jennifer Lynn Lieber was sentenced to 306 months after jurors rejected her account of an accidental shooting.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. — A Scott County judge sentenced Jennifer Lynn Lieber to 25 1/2 years in prison after a jury found she murdered her live-in boyfriend during a late-night confrontation at a Credit River home in March 2024.

The sentence closed a case built around what happened inside and around Lieber’s home on March 4, 2024, when 45-year-old David Joseph Nanovic was shot in the head. Prosecutors said Lieber, 47, held the gun, made threats and later tried to frame the shooting as an accident. Her account was challenged by physical evidence, by statements from children in the home and by the condition of Nanovic’s body when deputies arrived.

Deputies were not first sent to the property for a reported shooting. They went there for a welfare check after Lieber’s estranged husband called authorities around 10:23 p.m. and said she was acting strangely. He had heard from Nanovic’s son, then 10, who said Lieber was threatening to kill herself. When deputies found Lieber outside with a friend, she said she and Nanovic had argued and that she had “really f—ed up.” Lieber told investigators Nanovic had the gun and that it fired after she kicked it out of his hand. The boy gave a different account, telling deputies, “Jennifer is probably freaking out because she had the gun in her hand.”

The child’s statement became one of the clearest early breaks in the case. He told investigators that he, his father and Lieber had been watching television in the living room earlier that night when Lieber became agitated and grabbed a handgun. He said she kept the gun with her, insulted Nanovic and used racial slurs. The boy also told deputies Lieber had been physically abusive toward Nanovic before and described his time in the home as “living in hell.” Authorities said Lieber had made threats to kill Nanovic and the boy before the shooting. Those details placed the gun in Lieber’s possession before Nanovic was found dead and raised questions about her claim that the weapon discharged by accident during a struggle.

The timeline moved between the main house and a pool house on the property. Nanovic and his son left the main residence and went to the pool house after the night grew tense. Around 9:30 p.m., two children Lieber shared with her estranged husband came out and said their mother was acting erratically. They later returned to the main house. About 30 minutes later, one of those children called Nanovic’s son and asked him and Nanovic to come back to check on the family dogs. As Nanovic and his son approached, the boy said Lieber pointed the gun at them, told them not to come inside and fired a shot. They retreated again. Nanovic later went back toward the house to check on the dogs. His son said that was the last time he saw his father alive.

When deputies entered the home, they found Nanovic at the bottom of a set of stairs, covered in blood. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators recovered the handgun and focused on whether the shooting could have happened as Lieber described. The autopsy determined Nanovic died from a gunshot wound to the head and that the wound was a contact wound, meaning the gun was against or very close to him when it fired. That finding became key evidence against the idea that the firearm simply went off after being kicked from someone’s hand. Prosecutors also relied on Lieber’s statements before and after the shooting, including what she told a friend by phone.

The friend told investigators Lieber called in a panic and said there was blood everywhere and that it was not her fault. The friend said Lieber wanted to wait for her to arrive before calling 911. At the same time, Lieber’s children contacted their father and said their mother was not acting normally. The estranged husband then called police, which brought deputies to the home. By then, investigators said, Nanovic was already dead. The records showed several people separately describing a chaotic night, with children moving between the pool house and main home while adults tried to understand what Lieber was doing with the gun.

Lieber was charged with second-degree murder after the shooting and convicted by a Scott County jury in January 2026 after a two-week trial. Judge Caroline Lennon sentenced her on April 7 to 306 months in prison and gave her credit for 232 days already served. Under the sentence, Lieber is expected to spend more than 16 years in prison before supervised release if standard Minnesota custody rules apply. Sheriff Luke Hennen said the prosecution reflected investigators’ work with the county attorney’s office to seek justice for violent crime victims. Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar called the killing “a tragic and preventable act of violence” and said the sentence could not undo the harm to Nanovic’s family.

Nanovic’s death left a case in which a child’s account stood against the adult defendant’s explanation. The boy’s words did not stand alone. They were joined by the autopsy finding, the earlier threats described in charging records, the friend’s account of Lieber’s phone call and the timeline that placed Nanovic returning to the house after trying to stay away from the confrontation. The result was a verdict that rejected the accidental-shooting claim and treated Nanovic’s death as intentional murder under Minnesota law.

Jennifer Lieber remains under the sentence imposed in Scott County District Court. The case stands at the post-sentencing stage, with the prison term ordered, credit for time served recorded and no further hearing date publicly identified in the reports reviewed.

Author note: Last updated April 29, 2026.