Trial underway for suspect in airman’s shooting death

Nathan Paet rushed out the door of his far southwest valley home, late to work at Nellis Air Force Base, and was gunned down before he could make it out of the garage.

Shot five times, the 28-year-old staff sergeant stumbled back inside, bleeding through his camouflage fatigues, and fell to the floor.

His wife, Michelle Paet, who prosecutors say wanted her husband out of the picture and planned the killing with her boyfriend, called police, as four young children watched their father die.

Just moments earlier on the night of Dec. 1, 2010, Michael Rodriguez had sent a text message to Michelle Paet that read, "This contract is a pain."

"This contract being the murder that they're planning, and that they're going to carry out," prosecutor Frank Coumou told jurors in opening statements of Rodriguez's death penalty trial Monday.

Michelle Paet replied to the text: "My husband just woke up. I guess he's late. Lol."

Rodriguez was waiting outside in his black Cadillac CTS with the alleged gunman, Corry Hawkins, prosecutors said.

"I got it covered," Rodriguez told Michelle Paet.

And just before the blasts from a .38-caliber handgun killed her husband, she replied: "He's rushing to get out the door. Lol."

Rodriguez is the first of four defendants, along with Michelle Paet, Hawkins and Jessica Austin, to face trial in the killing.

Defense lawyers portrayed Michelle Paet as the mastermind of the killing, and said she had tried to take out a life insurance policy on her husband as early as April 2009, long before she met Rodriguez.

The Paets had raised four children, ages 2 through 9, together, and Nathan Paet was unaware of his wife's infidelity, prosecutors said.

He was born in 1982 in Tamuning, Guam. He and Michelle were high school sweethearts. After graduation, Nathan joined the Air Force in April 2002, and the two married in 2006.

At Nellis, Nathan Paet was the assistant non-commissioned officer-in-charge for the Strike Aircraft Maintenance Supply section of the 757th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

Prosecutors said his life insurance policy was increased to $600,000 less than a month before he was killed. Authorities have said that Michelle Paet admitted to planning the killing in October 2010.

But Rodriguez, who was addicted to painkillers, stood to reap none of the financial benefits, defense lawyer Alzora Jackson told jurors.

She asked jurors to "determine if Mr. Rodriguez was capable of possessing the requisite intent" for first-degree murder.

Metro officer John Harris responded to the southwest valley home, where he saw blood stains on the garage floor and a streak of red on the white door. He walked inside and found Michelle Paet kneeling over her husband, feigning CPR.

Harris testified that the woman did not appear upset and her "demeanor did not match the situation."

He asked her what could have happened.

"It had to be random," she said. "It had to be completely random."

Nothing was stolen, and neighbors reported seeing the black Cadillac speed off without headlights after they heard gunfire.

As Nathan Paet lay dying, his wife reached her arms around the officer in what was described as a "flirtatious hug" that Harris found "strange, very strange."

After paramedics arrived, one of the children looked up at Harris and asked, "Is my daddy going to be OK?"

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker