Back in March, Victoria Goodwin, wife of Ghost Adventurers star Aaron Goodwin, was arrested in Nevada in a murder-for-hire plot. Turns out, they had been having marriage problems after Aaron caught Victoria cheating on him with multiple men earlier in the fall. They reconciled, or so he thought. At some point during that time period, she had attempted to hire convicted murderer and Stephen Miller-lookalike Grant Amato to kill Aaron in order to get out of their marriage. She was charged with “conspiracy to commit murder” and “solicitation to commit murder.”
Victoria pleaded guilty in a Las Vegas court in April. Last week, she had her sentencing hearing. During the hearing, she gave a statement apologizing for her actions and Aaron gave an emotional victim impact statement. He spoke about how for so long, he thought that he was in a relationship with his best friend, a woman he trusted more than anyone. He also talked about how unsafe he’s felt ever since finding out about her plot to have him killed.
Aaron Goodwin confronted his estranged wife Victoria Goodwin for conspiring to murder him. The Ghost Adventures star, 49, read a statement in court as Victoria was sentenced on Thursday, June 5, detailing how he felt when he found out that she had been plotting his murder and the subsequent fear he had for his safety.
“For seven years I thought I was in [the] most loving relationship of marriage with my best friend, someone I trusted [with my] whole heart and laughed with every day. Someone who made me feel like I was so — like I was her one and only,” an emotional Goodwin told the judge, per Court TV.
“Now, discovering she put a hit out to kill me more than once, got blackmailed and spent almost all our savings to keep it quiet … This has led me to fear [for] my life,” he continued, through tears. “I’ve hired armed security for weeks. Not knowing [whether] it was over or not.”
Aaron, who filed for divorce from Victoria in March, told the judge that ever since he found out about the plot, he has been “looking over” his shoulder and going through therapy to understand everything that has happened.
He then described the feeling as a “heartbreak no one should go through in life,” stating, “The fact that this person did all this to me with no worry, no care or love in her heart for me, I will never feel the same.”
“I will never feel safe or be the same because of what she did. Especially when she gets out one day,” Aaron added. “Whether she [gets] minimum or maximum time, I still won’t feel safe whenever she’s released. I feel like this deserves prison time.”
Victoria was later sentenced to a minimum of 36 months and a maximum of 90 months in prison, according to KVVU-TV. She previously accepted a plea deal in April, pleading guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder.
Don’t forget that one of Victoria’s texts to Amato was, ”Am I a bad person? Because I chose to end his existence. Not divorce.” Pretty sure this is a textbook case of FAFO. Not only did Victoria f-ck around and find out that she is indeed a bad person, but she ended up with that divorce anyway, along with a three-to-seven year jail sentence.
I watched the video of Aaron’s victim impact statement (below). I feel terrible for him. He’s crying, she starts crying…the whole thing is just awful. I feel so badly for him. I truly cannot imagine going through what he has gone through for the last few months. That part about hiring armed security and always looking over his shoulder? Ugh, terrible. I’m glad he’s in therapy and I hope he has a lot of support from friends and family. I truly wish Aaron the very best. I hope he finds peace, healing, and, eventually, a partner who loves him and treats him right.
Here’s Aaron’s victim impact statement. I cued it up to start, but just in case, it’s at 10:21. Victoria’s statement is right before Aaron’s:
Photos credit Getty and via social media and YouTube/CourtTV
I didn’t watch the show and was not familiar with the case, but I didn’t need to in order to feel deeply for this poor man. I cannot begin to imagine his heartbreak, his sorrow, and his continuing trauma. I hope he recovers at least some part of his old self through therapy, and I hope that she was sentenced to the maximum.
I feel so sad for him. To have someone you thought you could trust do that to you. Thank God she wasn’t successful.
She states—“ This is not a reflection of who I am” oh. It is. It so very much is.
Isn’t that one of the oddest things about this case? Lady, if that isn’t a reflection of exactly who you are, what IS?
Only 3 to 7 years for trying to murder someone? I’d go into some type of protection program once she was released. He does not deserve that.
Yeah, it really feels like if you hired someone to kill someone else and it went wrong/that person didn’t die, you should still be tried as if they did. Like, if she had it her way he WOULD be dead, so she should be tried like he is. Feels like way too light a sentence.
I see this point debated on True Crime podcasts. There are cases where someone tried to commit murder, and actually physically harmed the victim in ways that it is surprising they lived, and yet live they did. And the sentencing is for things other than firsst degree murder. Maybe “attempted murder” and the hosts of those podcasts get so angry because it seems so senseless.
The Mary Vincent case comes to mind. I don’t want to list the details here as they could be triggering, but several violent crimes were committed against her and her attacker, Lawrence Singleton, absolutely left her for dead. It is AMAZING that she lived. He was given 14 years and released in 8 for good behaviour. He went on to successfully murder someone else.
In some ways I get it, we have classifications for crimes and if no one died than murder was not committed. But it is hard to wrap your head around when it is a matter of “well they definitely MEANT to commit murder, they tried really hard to do so, so why do they get a lighter sentence for just not being proficient at it?”