A Nevada woman who once confessed to killing her former lover is now fighting to prove her innocence as her trial begins — more than a year after she pleaded guilty to the gruesome 2023 murder.
Authorities discovered Johnathan Willette’s decapitated body inside a Henderson, Nevada, home on Aug. 7, 2023, according to the Henderson Police Department. His mother reportedly found him headless near bottles of bleach and ammonia, 8 News Now, FOX 5 Las Vegas, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Police arrested Devyn Michaels, Willette’s girlfriend, roughly a week later. She allegedly told investigators she struck Willette on the head with a wooden stick after he tried to coerce her into a sexual act. Michaels claimed she never meant to kill him — only to hurt him enough so she could “figure out what she could do with her children” while he was in the hospital, according to FOX 5.
Michaels pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year, court records show. But during her July sentencing, she broke down in court, proclaiming her innocence. Her emotional plea led Clark County District Court Judge Tierra Jones to allow her to withdraw the guilty plea, 8 News Now reported.
Her jury trial began on Wednesday, Nov. 5, and Michaels said she hopes it will clear her name.
At the time of the killing, Michaels was married to Willette’s son — though the two were reportedly preparing to move in together to co-parent the two children they shared. Willette’s son told police their marriage was an arrangement intended to help Michaels with medical issues, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
However, in this week’s proceedings, jurors were shown intimate photos of the married pair taken when the son was still a teenager, 8 News Now reported.
Defense attorney Robert Draskovich suggested that Willette’s son may have had the real motive to kill. “He was no longer going to be in this relationship because Dad — the dad he hated — was coming in and not only taking his home but taking his wife,” Draskovich told the court, per the outlet.
