Death Plot Takes Surprising Turn

Feb. 2, 2011 — -- A Houston woman who has survived three attempts on her life is now standing by her husband, who's been indicted in the crime. She even accompanied him to the police station as he turned himself in, hugging him and holding his hand.

"Let me be perfectly clear, Jeff Stern is innocent of these charges," Paul Nugent, Jeffrey Stern's lawyer, told ABC News.

Jeffrey Stern's 38-year-old mistress, Michelle Cabrera Gaiser, who had done work for him, was arrested and charged with plotting to kill his wife. Soon after, four other people were also arrested, and Yvonne Stern filed for divorce, citing adultery by her 53-year-old husband. But just months later, she changed her mind, and the couple reconciled.

Nugent told reporters that his client apologized to his family for the affair.

"The only thing Jeff is guilty of is having had a marital transgression," said Nugent.

But the Harris County District Attorney, who indicted Stern on two counts of solicitation of capital murder, does not agree.

"The prosecutor had to tell me frankly, 'Look, I understand her position – I respect it. I can tell it's heartfelt. The prosecutor doesn't suffer any misimpression that Mr. Stern has convinced her or cajoled her into this," Chip Lewis, Yvonne Stern's attorney, told ABC News.

The first attempt to kill Yvonne Stern was a drive by shooting at their home in February 2010. Two months later, in April, someone rang the doorbell and when Yvonne Stern came to the door, she saw a man through the glass in the door raise a gun at her. Stern jumped for cover and the man shot through the glass. The whole family was at home, and the teenage son was downstairs with Yvonne Stern, but no one was hurt.

According to Nugent, Jeffrey Stern took precautions to fortify his house and protect his family, hiring a retired police officer to advise him. The family then moved to an apartment for safety.

But a gunman tracked Yvonne Stern down there as well. In May 2010, Stern was sitting in the driver's seat of her car in the parking garage at their apartment. A man approached her window with a gun leveled at her head. She begged and pleaded through the window, telling the gunman about her children and a new grandchild. The gunman had a change of heart and lowered the gun from her head to her abdomen. He hesitated but then shot her in the stomach. She slumped over, played dead, and then, bleeding, drove herself to the nearest gas station for help, according to Lewis.