Fil-Am mom in Vegas gets life without parole for husband’s murder

Michelle Antwanette Paet gets life without parole for murdering her husband to get his insurance money, CLARK COUNTY DETENTION CENTER

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — A 34-year-old mother of four has been sentenced to life without parole in a Nevada prison for conspiring to kill her husband, a U.S. Air Force service member from Guam, to collect his life insurance.

Michelle Antwanette Paet didn’t face the death penalty March 2 following her guilty plea in October to plotting with her ex-convict boyfriend to shoot Staff Sgt. Nathan Paet, 28, dead in December 2010.

Michelle’s husband, Staff Sgt. Paet, a U.S. Air Force service member and Iraq War veteran from Guam, was gunned down outside their home.

Clark County District Court Judge Douglas Herndon called it incomprehensible and unfathomable that Paet spent weeks plotting the murder with boyfriend, Michael Rodriguez, 36, while tucking her children in at night as if nothing was wrong.

Murder victim U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Nathan Paet. FACEBOOK

Rodriguez and a co-defendant, Corry Hawkins, each face life in prison without parole on murder, conspiracy, burglary and weapon charges.

Their sentencing is postponed while they challenge their cases.

Paet had avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors said Michelle Paet had started a sexual relationship with a man she worked with, Rodriguez, in the six months leading up to the murder.

Rodriguez waited outside the couple’s southeast Las Vegas home and shot Nathan Paet five times as Paet headed to work at Nellis Air Force Base late December 1, 2010, according to the prosecution.

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