Michelle Paet pleads guilty to setting up the shooting murder of her husband

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A Las Vegas woman broke down on the stand on Thursday as she admitted to orchestrating a plot to murder her husband, who was shot five times by her boyfriend and died in front of the couple's four children.

Michelle Antwanette Paet, 33, sobbed as she turned to her in-laws and tearfully said: 'I'm sorry.'

'I love you guys, and I love my kids, and I hope that this is closure for you guys.'

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

Her husband, Staff Sgt. Nathan Paet, 28, a U.S. Air Force service member and Iraq War veteran from Guam, was gunned down outside their home in 2010.

Guilty: Michelle Paet, 33 (left), broke down in the stand Thursday as she admitted to having her boyfriend shoot dead her husband, Staff Sgt. Nathan Paet (right), an Iraq War veteran, outside their Las Vegas home in 2010

Guilty: Michelle Paet, 33 (left), broke down in the stand Thursday as she admitted to having her boyfriend shoot dead her husband, Staff Sgt. Nathan Paet (right), an Iraq War veteran, outside their Las Vegas home in 2010

Michelle Paet appears in court for her plea at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas Thursday October 1

Michelle Paet appears in court for her plea at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas Thursday October 1

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

Guilty: Michelle Paet, 33 (left), broke down in the stand Thursday as she admitted to having her boyfriend shoot dead her husband, Staff Sgt. Nathan Paet (right), an Iraq War veteran, outside their Las Vegas home in 2010

The couple were high school sweethearts who met in Guam, moved to the US together and had children, but Michelle Paet began having an affair with a man who she worked with. The two then plotted to kill Paet

The couple were high school sweethearts who met in Guam, moved to the US together and had children, but Michelle Paet began having an affair with a man who she worked with. The two then plotted to kill Paet

Killer: Michael Rodriguez, 36, was convicted of murder by a jury last week. He agreed to waive future appeals and accept a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole to avoid a possible death sentence

Prosecutors said Michelle Paet had started a sexual relationship with a man she worked with, Michael Rudolph Rodriguez, 36, in the six months leading up to the murder, according to The Las Vegas Review Journal.

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, prosecutor Frank Coumou told a jury during opening arguments on Monday.

Police said Paet, wearing in his camouflage uniform, was shot several times in the back before stumbling from his garage into his home and collapsing in front of his wife and their four children.

He died later at a hospital.

Coumou told jurors that Michelle Paet had alerted Rodriguez by text message when her husband was leaving the house. 

'He's rushing to get out the door. Lol,' one message said.

Killed: Staff Sgt. Nathan Paet, 28, a U.S. Air Force service member and Iraq War veteran from Guam, was gunned down outside his Las Vegas home in December 2010. He was 28

Two co-defendants, Jessica Ashley and Corry Hawkins, are still awaiting trial. 

Each has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, murder and burglary with a weapon.

Neighbors reported seeing a black Cadillac leave the scene of the shooting, and police said a witness told them that Rodriguez went to Ashley and Hawkins' apartment and burned his clothes in their fireplace.

Rodriguez's public defense attorney, Alzora Jackson, told the Clark County District Court jury that Rodriguez had nothing to gain from killing Nathan Paet. 

But police reported that Michelle Paet stood to receive a $400,000 from the military, and took out another $250,000 life insurance policy on her husband.

Police said Michelle Paet told investigators that she and Rodriguez began planning the slaying in October 2010, and they planned to be together afterward.

After her guilty plea, she now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole at a December sentencing.

Rodriguez was convicted of murder by a jury last week.

He agreed to waive future appeals and accept a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole to avoid a possible death sentence.

Prosecutors say Paet wanted her husband out of the picture and planned the murder over the course of six months with her boyfriend, Michael Rodriguez

Prosecutors say Paet wanted her husband out of the picture and planned the murder over the course of six months with her boyfriend, Michael Rodriguez

Nathan Paet was an F-15 supply technician with the 757th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. 

He and Michelle Paet were high school sweethearts who met in Guam.

He joined the Air Force in 2002. 

The couple married in 2006.

Rodriguez, a two-time felon convicted of attempted forgery charges in 2007 and 2008, worked with Michelle Paet at a telemarketing company in Las Vegas, according to arrest records.

Rodriguez told police he was having sex another woman at a Las Vegas casino-hotel at the time of the shooting. 

But that woman told police that Rodriguez asked her to be his alibi and told her he was set to receive up to $5,000 for the killing.

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