Attorneys: Mistress accused in murder-for-hire plot wanted her lover dead too

  

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There's a new twist in the murder-for-hire case involving a prominent Bellaire attorney. Jeffrey Stern's lawyer is now claiming that his ex-mistress tried to put out a hit on Stern from behind bars.

"Michelle Gaiser, from her jail cell, has plotted yet another murder," asserted Stern's attorney Paul Nugent. "She has solicited an inmate to murder Jeffrey Stern for $20,000."

Stern is scheduled to go to trial next month, accused of plotting with his ex-lover Michelle Gaiser to kill his wife. Stern has claimed that Gaiser acted alone and he now says she's plotting to kill him.

Jeffrey is charged with solicitation of capital murder for allegedly conspiring with his then-mistress Gaiser to have his wife Yvonne. She was targeted three separate times in 2010. Stern admitted to the affair but Yvonne stands by his claim that Gaiser acted alone in hiring several hit men to kill her.

Stern's lawyers now say an inmate at the Harris County Jail turned over a note from Gaiser in which she allegedly promised to pay $20,000 to have Jeffrey killed.

"However you to this, it needs to look like a robbery gone bad. It can't be a hit," Nugent read from a note Gaiser reportedly wrote. "So once you do the job it needs to get done. Ain't no second time to do it. It's one stop shop."

Nugent also says Gaiser suggested that he be murdered near his Aspen home to make it look like his wife was responsible.

"If you catch him there and he dies there, the people will think the wife did the planning to kill him as revenge. That would be good," Nugent continued reading from the note.

Stern's lawyers say last month they took the evidence to the district attorney's office, but no charges were filed against Gaiser, so they went instead to the Department of Justice. They say the FBI is now investigating. His lawyers claim there might be a federal interest in the case, but say they went to the feds because they trust the FBI as an investigative agency. They still hope the Harris County DA will charge Gaiser.

All of this is important because it is evidence that, if validated by the FBI, could further discredit Gaiser, who is scheduled to testify against Jeffrey Stern. In exchange, she cut a deal to serve no more than 25 years in prison.

The DA's office issued the following statements:

"As a matter of principle and longstanding practice, the Harris County District Attorney's Office does not comment upon investigations it may or may not be considering or conducting."

"We ask the media and general public to keep in mind that defense attorneys are paid to advance the legal interests of their clients. Statements about the existence of an FBI investigation or the deliberations and actions of this office are unsubstantiated assertions, not verified facts."

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