A WOMAN charged with the murder of her lover, who was also her father-in-law, and with mutilating his body, broke down in court while changing her plea during the sentencing.
Devyn Michaels, 47, admitted to killing Johnathan Willette, 46, in September, but on Thursday, she came to court with a bizarre new story.
Prosecutors honed in on Michaels just a couple of weeks after her 46-year-old boyfriend’s headless body was found in his home on August 7, 2023.
The body had been treated with chemicals such as bleach and ammonia, causing smoke to emanate from the severed neck wound, as described by Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani.
Michaels and Willette shared two children and were in an on-and-off-again relationship as Michaels was married to Willette’s son.
According to reports, she claimed to the police that the marriage was intended to enable the son to assist with her medical conditions and noted that she cohabited with Willette’s son, as reported by ABC affiliate KTNV in 2023.
Michaels and Willette were in the process of moving back in with each other for their children when he was killed, family members told investigators.
The accused killer girlfriend was set to be sentenced to 15 years to life in prison and put the years-long mystery to a close when she went on an emotional tirade in the Las Vegas, Nevada, courtroom.
After prosecutors summarized Michaels’ plea, the emotional suspect addressed the court to say that she was actually innocent.
“I know right now no one in the family feels that I am innocent at any point and I understand that, but I can actually prove my innocence,” she claimed.
“I actually can. And I am not going to stop fighting to prove my innocence.”
Michaels went on to say that her ex-lover deserves to have the person who is “actually guilty” behind bars.
“I was helping Johnathan. I can show that I was trying to help him,” she said.
The accused killer then broke down in tears and started yelling at state attorneys as she babbled about “things” being “altered” throughout proceedings.
The judge then quickly stepped in and sternly said, “Ms. Michaels, you are not to address the state, you are to address me.”
Michaels apologized but kept crying and said, “I don’t know how to fix any of this anymore, I don’t.
“I keep listening to what everyone tells me is the best thing to do, ‘Just do this and it’ll work out this way and follow this advice and we’ll do this.’
“And I keep listening to the people because they keep saying, ‘This is the best advice,’ and it doesn’t turn out the way they tell me it will.”
After Michaels cried and stressed her confusion over how she ended up making the plea, Giordani spoke up and said he was no longer comfortable with moving forward.
“This wouldn’t be appropriate,” he said.
“Let’s go to trial.”
The judge then asked Michaels if she wanted to withdraw her plea and be tried for first-degree murder, and she exclaimed, “Yes please.”
While the judge described the next steps and spoke to lawyers in the room, Michaels descended into loud heaving sobs and screamed, “Oh God, oh thank God!”
The judge turned her attention to the suspect and shouted, “Ms. Michaels, you need to conduct yourself like this is a courtroom.
“If you can’t do that, they’re gonna remove you because I still have business to conduct! Do you understand?”
Michaels nodded her head, and the pulse-pounding hearing came to a close.
DISTURBING EVIDENCE
Michaels accused Willette of being abusive toward her and said that he would shower in front of their oldest daughter when she was quizzed by cops about his death.
The suspect took a polygraph test and, according to prosecutors, she got a strong reaction when she was asked pointed questions about whether she was involved with his murder, an arrest report states.
When asked to explain the reading, Michaels said that she struck Willette in the back of the head with a wooden spoon the night of his death because he tried to get her to do something sexual.
She told detectives that she didn’t want to kill her lover and “only wanted to hurt him enough that he would have to go to the hospital because she wanted him out of the way so she could figure out what she could do with her children.”
Cops never found Willette’s severed head, and believe that it was thrown into the garbage and taken to a dump.
In another interview, when asked if she could have killed Willette and not remember, Michaels said, “Yes sir, it is very possible.”
Michaels was set to be sentenced to second-degree murder as part of her plea now. Now, she will stand trial for murder in the first degree.
