Houston Murder-for-Hire Plot Has New Twist - East Idaho News
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Houston Murder-for-Hire Plot Has New Twist

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Getty 100311 JailCellStock?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1339584858706iStockphoto/Thinkstock(HOUSTON) — A woman who confessed to plotting with her lover, Jeffrey Stern, to have his wife killed allegedly is now trying to have him killed from behind bars, Stern’s attorney has said.

Prosecutors say Stern, a prominent Houston lawyer, and his former mistress, Michelle Gaiser, planned three failed attempts to kill Stern’s wife, Yvonne.

The plots failed, although Yvonne was shot in the stomach during the third attempt.

Stern will be tried next month for his alleged role in the plots.

During a press conference on Tuesday, his attorney, Paul Nugent, claimed that that Gaiser was plotting to kill his client.  Nugent read from a jailhouse letter Gaiser allegedly wrote in which he claimed she ordered a hit on Stern.

“Michelle Gaiser — from her jail cell — has plotted yet another murder,” Nugent said.  “She has solicited an inmate to murder Jeffrey Stern for $20,000.”

Nugent also claimed the letter said the killing should “look like a robbery gone bad.”

Nugent would not give the media a closer look at the note, but he claims Gaiser wrote that the hit should happen near the Sterns’ vacation home in Aspen.

According to Nugent, the letter also said that if Stern was killed near the Aspen residence, “people will think the wife did the planning to kill him as revenge.”

Nugent said he turned the note over to the district attorney, who declined to bring Gaiser up on any new charges.  Nugent also claimed the FBI was investigating, but the agency would not confirm that.

Gaiser has agreed to plead guilty to arranging three attempts on Yvonne’s life.  In exchange for her guilty plea and cooperation with the government, prosecutors agreed to reduce her possible life sentence to a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Stern was charged with soliciting capital murder, and will stand trial on July 27.  He admitted the affair with Gaiser, but has denied any wrongdoing in the murder attempts.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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