Former Wheaton man pleads guilty in murder of pregnant wife

A former standout Wheaton College wrestler has pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his pregnant wife.

The Hennepin County, Minnesota, attorney's office says 31-year-old Yevgeniy Savenok of Eden Prairie agreed to a sentence of more than 65 years in prison. That's higher than guidelines call for, in part because his wife's sister, who's a minor, witnessed the stabbing in May.

Savenok's wife, 23-year-old Lyubov Savenok, was 26 weeks pregnant. The child died a few minutes after being delivered through an emergency cesarean section.

Savenok has told investigators that killing his wife was the "only way out." The couple had lived in DuPage County, where Lyubov Savenok had obtained a restraining order against her husband after hearing him on the phone with his father threatening to hurt her.

After his arrest, the 2008 Wheaton College graduate told police of a crumbling marriage and that he had thought about killing his 23-year-old wife as he made his way back from Wheaton to their home in Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis, in the early morning hours of May 14.

According to court documents, Savenok arrived at the home around 10:37 a.m. and stabbed his wife several times in her chest, shoulders and neck.

Lyubov Savenok died of massive blood loss due to roughly a dozen stab wounds, an autopsy showed. Doctors concluded that the baby, a boy the couple planned to name Ellis, was born too premature to survive.

At roughly 1 p.m. that day, Savenok arrived at United Hospital in St. Paul, along with two children. Officials said he told security guards at the hospital that he had just killed his wife.

Domestic abuse allegations against Savenok were made both in Wheaton and Minnesota, with an order of protection taken out by Lyubov in 2014.

Savenok was scheduled to appear before a Hennepin County judge three days after the murder to answer to charges stemming from four complaints in one month, August 2014, made by Lyubov.

Court records also show Lyubov Savenok filed for divorce in DuPage County on Nov. 5, 2014, but voluntarily rescinded the filing April 14, 2015.

• Daily Herald staff writer Justin Kmitch contributed to this report.