DEFIANCE COUNTY

Woman found guilty in ex-spouse's murder

11/10/2013

DEFIANCE — An Oakwood, Ohio, woman accused of orchestrating her former husband’s murder, then collecting the life insurance proceeds, was convicted Friday of aggravated murder and five other charges.

A Defiance County Common Pleas Court jury found Judith Hawkey, 46, guilty of aggravated murder, insurance fraud, and four counts of endangering children for the Nov. 3, 2003, death of Robert Breininger.

He was found shot in the head in the bedroom of a Mark Township home.

Authorities were called to the home on a report of an accidental shooting involving a boy, then 10 years old, and for nearly a decade considered Mr. Breininger’s death an accident.

Earlier this year, the county prosecutor’s office presented the case to a grand jury after obtaining new information that showed Hawkey abused her stepson for several years and, when he was 10, made him shoot his father.

Hawkey was held Saturday in the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio.