Ohio Teacher Charged After Allegedly Hiring a Student to Murder Her Husband for $2K

• Ohio teacher Stephanie Demetrius has been charged with felony conspiracy to commit murder
• Police allege Demetrius hired a student at the Academy for Urban Scholars High School in Columbus to murder her estranged husband for $2,000
• Demetrius has denied the allegations

A teacher in Columbus, Ohio, has been accused of attempting to hire a high school student to murder her estranged husband.

According to Franklin County Municipal Court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Stephanie Demetrius was arrested on April 1 and has been charged with felony conspiracy to commit murder. She allegedly approached an unnamed student at the Academy for Urban Scholars High School on March 26 and offered them $2,000 to shoot her husband.

Sgt. James Fuqua of the Columbus Division of Police said in a press conference, per local media outlet WSYX, “This particular teacher was attempting to groom this young person into committing murder.”

According to police, the student’s mother first alerted officials to the situation after finding details on their phone.

“Without their help, some of this may not have come completely to light and this was a situation where the parent was able to capture specific things inside of this young person’s phone to alert authorities,” Sgt. Fuqua shared.

Fuqua also noted that police were unaware of what led Demetrius to approach this particular student.

According to the court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Demetrius paid the student in question a downpayment of $250, and in a digital recording obtained by police, Demetrius assured the student that the remainder was coming.

The teacher also allegedly shared that her estranged husband worked from home and when their children would be out of the house. According to the court documents, Demetrius was asked by the student whether the neighbors would hear the gunfire and she allegedly replied that they don’t care about the neighbors.

According to WSYX, a public defender for Demetrius denied the allegations during a virtual court hearing, calling them a fabrication.

Franklin County Domestic Relations Court records obtained by PEOPLE show that Demetrius filed for divorce from her husband, Carlington Demetrius, in April 2024. She previously filed in September 2017, but that filing was later closed.

According to the Ohio State Board of Education, Demetrius currently has a valid substitute license for pre-K through 12th grade.

PEOPLE has reached out to the Academy for Urban Scholars High School and the Columbus Division of Police for comment and additional information.

A preliminary hearing in the case is set for April 11. According to Ohio state law, if Demetrius is convicted with the felony in the first degree, it could come with a life sentence.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Demetrius’ husband filed for emergency custody of the couple’s children in July 2024. In the filing, he detailed other allegations against his estranged wife, claiming that she violated a stay-away order and broke into his home, taking a laptop and money.

He also alleged, per the filing, that she used a pair of scissors to “stab” him while one of the children was home. The filing also alleges that she had on another occasion set fire to the home’s basement, taken parts needed to fix the home’s furnace while temperatures were below freezing, smashed garage doors, damaged property while children were present and taken the home’s Wi-Fi device to prevent Internet access.