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Bonnie Marie Vaughan, 59, pleaded guilty to murdering her husband, Jeffrey Fellman, 55, and was sentenced to life in prison on May 4, 2023, in Warren County Common Pleas Court. Judge Robert W. Peeler sentenced her that day after she also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse.

Vaughan had been indicted on aggravated murder and felonious assault with firearm specifications, along with murder, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse. Prosecutors dropped the aggravated murder and felonious assault counts. The Ohio prison record lists 15 years to life for murder, with 3 years for tampering with evidence and 1 year for abuse of a corpse running concurrently. She is held at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, with her first parole hearing listed for August 2037.

The couple lived on Stone Path Drive in Middletown, Ohio, in Warren County. County property records listed Vaughan as the owner. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said Vaughan shot Fellman multiple times in the garage on September 19, 2022. The next day, she picked up John Havens, 34, the boyfriend of Fellman's daughter, and asked him to help dispose of a body. Havens told police he used a handsaw from the garage to dismember the body.

On September 20, 2022, Havens went to the Middletown Division of Police, reported that Vaughan had shot and killed Fellman, and admitted dismembering the body. Officers made a welfare check at the house around 9 p.m. and found the remains in a trash can in the garage. Vaughan had left. Police found her in her car at a Middletown gas station and arrested her on a murder charge.

According to court documents, Vaughan admitted killing her husband the previous day. She told officers she became frightened during an argument in which, she said, he threw a chair and grabbed her by the arm. The recording is her interview with Middletown police after her arrest. At a preliminary hearing, Detective Brook McDonald testified that Vaughan said Fellman was by the refrigerator when he was shot, but officers found him in trash bags. Her attorney argued self-defense; the prosecutor said investigators found evidence she planned the killing.

Middletown police said officers had previously responded to domestic disturbances at the home; Police Major Eric Crank described numerous calls. Bond was set at $1 million for Vaughan and $15,000 for Havens. In April 2023, Vaughan was found competent to stand trial after a court-ordered forensic psychological evaluation.

Havens pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, and gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony. His sentencing was set for July 11, 2023. No sentence has been publicly reported, and he does not appear in the Ohio prison system's offender search.