A Clark County jury has found 47-year-old former adult film performer Devyn Michaels (Nikki Fairchild) guilty of first-degree murder in the 2023 killing of her ex-husband, Johnathan Willette, whose body was discovered decapitated inside his Henderson, Nevada, home.

Devyn Michaels (Nikki Fairchild) now faces life in prison at her January 8 sentencing.

Jurors reached their verdict after roughly two hours of deliberation, concluding a two-week trial marked by conflicting testimony, questions about motive, and Michaels’ own shifting statements to police.

46-year-old Johnathan Willette was found dead on August 6, 2023, by his mother. According to investigators, his body had been covered in chemicals and wrapped in bedding. His head was never recovered. No murder weapon or cutting tool was found.

Detectives testified that Michaels admitted during interviews to striking Willette in the head with a “candlestick-like” object while giving him a back massage in his bedroom. She later claimed she placed his severed head into a laundry basket and disposed of it in a neighborhood trash bin. That portion of her statement was not heard by the jury due to evidentiary limits.

Defense attorney Robert Draskovich argued that Michaels’ admissions were inconsistent, coerced, or incomplete, and that she lacked the physical strength to dismember Willette. But jurors—according to comments relayed to attorneys—felt the confession ultimately outweighed the defense’s alternative theories.

“Any time there’s a confession, it’s a difficult case to defend,” Draskovich said after the verdict.

Prosecutors John Giordani and Brittni Griffith leaned heavily on Michaels’ own words and on physical evidence, including Willette’s phone, found in the driveway of Michaels’ home and bearing what prosecutors said was a droplet of his blood.

At trial, prosecutors outlined a complicated personal history. Michaels married Willette in 2012 and divorced him in 2018. She later married Willette’s son, Deviere Willette, a relationship she described as a “marriage of convenience.”

Testimony showed that Willette was in the process of moving back into Michaels’ home at the time of his death, a development prosecutors argued threatened Michaels’ control over her household and her relationship with Deviere.

“The walls were closing in on Devyn Michaels and the fantasy she had put together,” Griffith told jurors.

Draskovich attempted to raise suspicion toward Deviere, suggesting the now 29-year-old had a motive rooted in jealousy or emotional turmoil. But investigators testified there was no phone, video, or physical evidence placing him at the scene, and Deviere himself denied any involvement.

“I am extremely grateful that the jury saw Deviere’s innocence and saw the overwhelming evidence of Devyn’s guilt,” prosecutor Giordani said after the verdict.

The case reached trial only after Michaels withdrew a previous guilty plea to second-degree murder, which would have made her eligible for parole after 15 years. During an earlier sentencing hearing, she apologized to the victim’s family—then immediately declared she was innocent, prompting the court to send the case to trial.

Jurors were not told about the earlier plea agreement.

Michaels, also known by the names Nikki Fairchild and Tracee Tavarez, had last worked as a realtor. Weeks after Willette’s killing, she received a one-year probation sentence in an unrelated child abuse case — a sentencing that occurred while police were already interviewing her in connection with the homicide.

Michaels’ sentencing is scheduled for January 8, where she faces life with or without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

The location of Willette’s head and the tools used in the decapitation remain unknown. Investigators have stated the killing involved a knife and a power saw, based on medical examination.

As the court prepares for sentencing, the case leaves behind a trail of unanswered questions but a firm conclusion from the jury that Michaels was responsible for Willette’s death after what prosecutors described as months of turmoil, jealousy, and tightening circumstances.