Kriti Mehrotra
When Air Force Staff Sergeant Nathan Paet was shot multiple times inside his garage late on December 1, 2010, what came to light was a trail of clues pointing to infidelity, culminating in murder. After all, as explored in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Part of the Plan,’ it was his high school sweetheart, wife, and mother of four children, Michelle Paet, who essentially paved the way for him to be killed. That’s because it was her lover, Michael Rudolph Rodriguez, and his friend, Corry Alexis Hawkins, who ambushed the serviceman to ensure she could cash out his military life insurance policy.
Michael Rodriguez Got Romantically Involved With Michelle Paet Over Time
It was while Michelle Paet was working at a local telemarketing company in Las Vegas, Nevada, that she first came across Michael Rodriguez as her co-worker, just for them to gradually connect. The former was a married mother of four struggling to feel seen in her union owing to busy schedules and financial constraints, whereas the latter was engaged yet not ready to wholly commit. Therefore, the duo reportedly leaned on one another a lot for support, which eventually resulted in them becoming physically intimate despite the fact that neither had set out to have an affair.
According to Michelle’s own account to the police, it was during one of her rants to Micahel that he suggested they remove her husband from the picture altogether to solve her problems. This way, he indicated, she could move on without worrying about a divorce, her four young kids, or finances, as she would get the payout from Nathan’s $650,000 military life insurance policy. The self-proclaimed family woman alleged she tried to shut this idea down, yet her lover was set on it, so they began planning the murder in the fall of 2010, two months before it happened.
Michael Rodriguez and His Accomplice Lay in Wait to Kill Nathan Paet
The plan Michelle and Michael eventually settled on was that he and an accomplice would shoot the serviceman as he left home for his night shift one evening while she stayed back with their kids. All she had to do was unlock his truck beforehand to ensure they got the job done as swiftly as possible, yet she reportedly didn’t – at the last moment, she said she did her best to back out. As per her statements to the police, she successfully shut off her husband’s alarm that night to make him late for work in the hopes the two men waiting outside would leave, but they didn’t.
However, the police believed Michelle wasn’t telling the truth because of her strange texts with Michael – they were speaking of a contract as if it was work-related, mere minutes before the shooting. At 11:12 pm, he texted her, in part, “Just about done with Vandykes’ contract for tomorrow. He’s a pain in the a**,” and a few minutes later, he sent another weird text indicating she was a part of it too. Michelle replied to him at 11:19, “My husband just woke me up, and he’s trying to rush out the door. I guess he’s late, lol. Sorry, that contract is a pain.” Officials believe “contract” was code for Nathan’s murder and that her text was to let them know to be ready.
Michael Rodriguez and Corry Hawkins Were Arrested Within Days of the Incident
In the aftermath of the shooting, with several neighbors calling 911 to report the gunfire and seeing a black sports-like car speeding away, Michelle told officials her co-worker had a Black Cadillac. After her initial 911 call and the news of Nathan’s demise, she said in her police interview that they had a good marriage despite their financial issues as well as her tendency to be flirtatious. She also informed them about her co-worker Michael’s car, yet asserted they were just friends who had sometimes joked about getting physical, a statement he corroborated in his questioning.
Nevertheless, because of the possibility of his involvement, officials asked him where he was at the time of the incident, to which he said he had picked up a woman at Walmart that night before checking in with her at the Sunset Station Hotel & Casino in Henderson. He gave them her name as well as contact details, just for her to back everything he stated, only for his alibi to fall apart once surveillance videos showed him checking in well after midnight. Then, mere days later, Michelle confessed to everything after having come in to take a lie detector test, unaware that Shannon would also come forward mere hours later to relay her whole truth.
According to Shannon’s account, she was actually at her friend Jessica Austin’s house late on December 1, 2010, when the latter told her that if anyone asked, she should say she was with Michael. The reason she was given is that Michael and Jessica’s boyfriend, Corry Hawkins, planned to rob a heroin dealer, so the former needed an alibi, and she agreed without really questioning anything. However, once she realized that Michael was actually under investigation for murder, she knew she wanted nothing to do with it. So, she even informed officials that the two men had burned their clothes that night before she left with her friend’s acquittance for the hotel. With all this, Michelle, Michael, Corry, and Jessica were all arrested on the charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder within days.
Michael Rodriguez and Corry Hawkins Are Currently Serving Their Sentence Behind Bars
Although it was in December 2010 itself that charges against Nathan Paet’s then-alleged killers were filed, it wasn’t until nearly 5 years later that this matter came to a close with court verdicts. Michael stood trial in September 2015, during which his defense alleged that it was actually his accomplice, Corry, who pulled the trigger on the serviceman to kill him on that fateful night. Shannon also bravely testified against him, even going as far as to tell the court that after they had settled in their hotel room, he had actually admitted to her that he had shot someone that fateful night. Hence, with his past convictions for attempted forgery in 2007 and 2008, as well as the evidence presented against him, the jury found him guilty as charged, leading to his sentence of life in prison without parole.
Then, on October 1, 2010, shortly before her trial was scheduled to commence, Michelle pleaded guilty to the same charges and was eventually handed down life in prison without the possibility of parole too. Corry’s plea on the charges of murder, conspiracy, burglary, and possession of a weapon by an ex-felon was also finalized in October 2010, for which he also received a life term with no parole. Ashley, though, was given only probation after she pleaded guilty to the sole lesser charge of conspiracy. Thus, today, while 45-year-old Michael Rudolph Rodriguez remains incarcerated at the medium-security Lovelock Correctional Center in Pershing County, Nevada, 47-year-old Corry Hawkins is incarcerated at the high-security High Desert State Prison in Clark County, Nevada.
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