Woman Escapes Estranged Husband's Murder Plot

April 8, 2005 — -- When Amy Rezos went to meet her estranged husband to talk about a divorce, she never imagined what would happen next.

When the couple separated, Chris got a hotel room. On July 2, 2004, Amy thought she was meeting him in the hotel to finalize the details of the divorce. Instead, she was walking into a carefully planned trap.

As the couple argued over the custody of their two boys, Chris snapped. "I just remember seeing a look on him that I had never ever seen before in my life. It was a look ... like a monster," she said.

Amy was savagely beaten. Someone in a nearby room heard the commotion and called the police.

When officer Paul Lovett arrived, Chris Rezos tried to convince him that they were victims of a robbery. But Lovett didn't buy it.

"I could see a woman on the floor covered in blood. The bathroom was covered in blood. I was certain she was dying. I asked her to blink once for no, twice for yes," Lovett said.

When police searched Chris, his elaborate plot became clear. They found rubber gloves, Amy's jewelry and credit cards to make it look like a robbery, even a to-do list Chris had written on Post-it notes.

As the 35-year-old woman lay near death, Lovett tried to speak to her, "I asked if your husband did this to you and blink once for no, twice for yes, and she blinked twice," he said.

Her injuries were severe. "I had the four skull fractures. I had over 30 staples put in my head ... a small fracture in my vertebrae. And I had bruises all over, rug-burn marks on my knees, from where he had dragged me into the bathroom," she said.

Her family was shocked at the extent of her injuries, but they got another shock when they found out Chris had been released on bond.

"He was taken in custody at 6 p.m. on Friday night, and by noon the next day, he was out on $2,000 bond," Amy's brother Kevin Jones said.

A few days later, Chris Rezos was arraigned, but the judge never heard the details of the savage beating or the carefully calculated murder plot. So he was released again -- this time on a $100,000 bond.

The police told Amy to change all the locks in her home. A restraining order was granted to prevent Chris from seeing her. Amy said she had no reason to think she wouldn't be safe.

Chris was staying with his parents and made no attempts to communicate with her or see her -- until just a few weeks later.

On July 26, as Amy was in her van pulling out of the driveway and heading to work, Chris was hiding in the back with a gun.

"He came up from behind me, behind my seat, and said, "Turn right." And I remember screaming, slamming on the brakes and screaming. And that is when he shot me," Amy said.

Instead of stepping on the brakes, Amy hit the accelerator causing the van to crash. Chris's head broke the windshield.

Sheriff's detectives Rob Whitlock and Ken Hardin arrived on the scene soon after. The detectives found the bullet that had gone through Amy's head on the floor, a gun and a baked potato that Chris had intended to use as a silencer on the passenger seat.

When the detectives reached the hospital, doctors told them Amy was unlikely to live. They quickly tried to get a statement from her while she remained conscious. Whitlock said they were able to record her identifying her husband, Chris, as her assailant.

For the second time in a month, Amy Rezos was at death's door after her husband tried to kill her. Her mother, Sally, feared the worst.

"When they were taking her to surgery ... I felt so helpless. All I could say was, 'Dear God, please, don't let her die,' " she said.

Amy was again in the intensive care unit, this time with two gunshot wounds to the head. Her eye socket was shattered. She had bullet fragments in her brain. But once again, Amy refused to die.

Amy regained consciousness four days after the shooting, and she recalls how she felt when she first saw her sons. "That was the only part I'm going to cry about is seeing my kids. But it was wonderful to see them. You just don't even know how much you miss your kids until you get through something like that," she said.

Chris was on crutches from injuries sustained in the car crash, but pleaded not guilty to shooting Amy. After two attempts on Amy's life, he sat in the Butler County jail awaiting trial. Incredibly, he remained determined to kill his wife. From behind bars, Chris Rezos hatched yet a third plot to kill Amy.

This time, he didn't just want Amy killed. He wanted to kill her brother and her mother as well.

Chris put out a $10,000 contract on their lives through a man in the prison he thought was a hit man. Amazingly, Chris put everything in writing. He drew a map of Amy's neighborhood, detailing her hair color and what kind of car she drove. He even listed in what order the killings should occur.

Whitlock said, "He wanted Amy done first and then at the very bottom he writes 'Sally would be a bonus.' " The detectives captured Chris on tape as he finalized the deal with their informer from inside the jail.

Whitlock and Hardin said they had never seen a man with such determination to commit murder. "It's mind-boggling. I believe he started with a seed of hatred and the hatred just devoured his soul," detective Hardin said.

After three failed attempts to kill his wife, Chris stood in court faced with overwhelming evidence. He agreed to plead guilty, rather than face trial -- and a possible life sentence -- and was sentenced to 30 years in prison without parole.

Amy is still healing from her injuries, and the surgeries are not yet over. But she has once again bounced back with remarkable resilience. She says taking care of her boys has given her little time to get angry or scared.

Instead of living in fear, Amy is taking action by speaking out for a change in Ohio state law. "Amy's Law," as it's called, would require judges to use a risk-assessment checklist before letting a domestic abuser out on bond.

Had a law like this been in place, Amy believes Chris would never have been set free after the first attack.

In an address to the Ohio State Senate, Amy challenged legislators to "think about your own daughters and granddaughters and think about them if something like this happened to them. It only takes one person to try make a change, and I'm gonna do that."

Amy is courageous and grateful, simply feeling lucky to be alive and able to raise her two sons. "I have very many guardian angels watching over me. And I'm very lucky, very lucky."