Toledo man sentenced to life in prison for stabbing ex-girlfriend to death

10/27/2017
BY JENNIFER FEEHAN
BLADE STAFF WRITER
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    Christopher Mominee appears in Lucas County Common Pleas Court Friday.

    The Blade/Dave Zapotosky
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  • Christopher Mominee fatally stabbed their mother, dragged her body to the garage, and told Tiffiney Mohn's three children that she was in the hospital.

    The charade went on for two days.

    Christopher Mominee appears in Lucas County Common Pleas Court Friday.
    Christopher Mominee appears in Lucas County Common Pleas Court Friday.

    On Friday, Mominee, 37, of the 900 block of Hurd Street pleaded no contest in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to murder and aggravated burglary for the Oct. 24, 2016 stabbing death of his former girlfriend, Ms. Mohn, 38.

    Judge Stacy Cook sentenced him to life in prison with the opportunity for parole after he serves 25 years. She said the harm he caused was immeasurable.

    “Your actions were devastating for a family, devastating to this young woman,” the judge said. “There is no excuse. This is not the act of drug addiction. This is not the act of a person who is struggling financially. This is a completely monstrous act. There is no defense.

    “To know that [her children] were in a room just feet away from their mother's dead body, it's sickening to me,” she added.

    Because the murder charge carried a mandatory prison term, defense attorney Jane Roman made no statements to the court before sentencing.

    Mominee also stood silently and showed no emotion.

    Ms. Roman said afterward that her client “thought there was nothing he could say that would make a difference. He thought it would just cause the family more pain.”

    The victim's mother, Gail Mohn, told the court Mominee had taken away her only child and terrorized her grandchildren, who were 16, 14, and 5 when they lost their mother.

    “He chose to brutally end her life and then cover her with a tarp on a cold floor in a cold garage. He deserves no better,” Ms. Mohn said.

    Clint Wasserman, an assistant county prosecutor, laid out the chilling facts of the case, telling the court that the murder at Ms. Mohn's Catawba Street home and the events that followed over the next two days were captured on a surveillance video at a business across the street.

    “The images captured are horrific,” he said.

    After Ms. Mohn took her children to school Oct. 24, she is seen entering her home with Mominee about 9:15 a.m. Minutes later, Ms. Mohn either falls or is pushed out the side door where Mominee approaches her, stabs her repeatedly during a struggle, and drags her to the detached garage.

    He leaves at 9:33 a.m. in her car then returns at 10:48 a.m. wearing different clothes. Mominee then can be seen taking the water hose and spraying her garage, home, and driveway.

    The video shows him removing Ms. Mohn's property from the house, and, over the next two days, coming and going with the children and his friend, Timothy Eff.

    Mr. Wasserman said it was Mr. Eff — who he called “a true hero” — who realized Mominee was acting strangely and that his story about Ms. Mohn was not adding up.

    Mr. Eff told investigators Mominee told him he knew he was going away for the rest of his life and didn't know what to do with the children, that he “was just going to have to off 'em.” When he and Mominee went to pick up the oldest child at his high school a short while later, Mr. Eff drove off with the two younger children and took them to the Safety Building, telling police what Mominee had said.

    Mr. Wasserman said police searched Ms. Mohn's home and ultimately entered her garage, which was padlocked with the windows spray-painted. They found her body under a tarp.

    Although no motive was given for the murder, Mr. Wasserman said afterward that any number of factors could have contributed to Mominee's rage.

    “It can be jealousy from that relationship ending. It can be financial. It can be addiction,” Mr. Wasserman said. “Either way, that's not important. What's important is his actions, and his actions — he took Tiffiney from this earth and deprived three children of their mother — it's heart-breaking.”

    Now retired Toledo Police Det. Robert Schroeder worked the case with Det. Larry Anderson. He said police initially thought they'd find Ms. Mohn alive.

    “The effect of talking to her kids as witnesses and then having to turn around and tell them their Mom was killed was tough,” Det. Schroeder said.

    He said he nominated Mr. Eff for a public service award, saying that his quick thinking may have saved the children's lives.

    Contact Jennifer Feehan at jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.