Former California prostitute sentenced in Reno kidnapping

Scott Sonner

Friday, Aug. 13, 1999 | 8:23 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Her lawyer says Michelle Michaud deserves a break because she turned the state's evidence on her former lover and kidnapping accomplice even though she feared for her own life.

But Michaud, 42, of Sacramento, Calif., told a federal judge Thursday she was ready for her punishment in the kidnapping of a college student and is leaving her fate in God's hands. She faces an additional murder charge in a separate case in California and could face the death penalty.

Michaud was sentenced in Nevada on Thursday to 12 years in prison after earlier pleading guilty to aiding in the September 1997 kidnapping and rape of the Morrison College student.

The former California prostitute also was ordered to pay a $175,000 fine in the event that she ever profits from a book or movie about the gruesome kidnapping and sexual assault.

In addition to the Reno kidnapping, Michaud also is accused of murder, along with James Daveggio, in the strangling death of Vanessa Lei Samson, 22, of Pleasanton, Calif. California authorities intend to extradite both when the Nevada case is concluded.

In a tearful statement just before sentencing, Michaud told a federal judge she wished she had done more to stop Daveggio, who also has been convicted of the rape and kidnapping of the student and is awaiting sentencing.

"There is no way to make you understand, because I still don't understand. ... I don't know how it got where it got," Michaud told the judge Thursday.

"I'm ready to be punished and I know that has to happen. But now he can't hurt anybody anymore," she said.

"I'm so, so sorry for not being stronger for not being able to stop things he has done. I've endured so much to get here to be able to stand in court to say he did what he did."

Her lawyer, Mary Boetsch, urged U.S. District Judge David Hagen to depart from federal sentencing guidelines - 11 to 14 years - and go easier given her cooperation with FBI agents and testimony that lead to Daveggio's kidnapping conviction.

Boetsch said Michaud was acting on orders and feared for her own life when Daveggio, known as "Froggy," snatched the student from a Reno street in September 1997 and repeatedly sexually assaulted her while Michaud drove the getaway van to California, eventually dropping the victim near Auburn.

She said Michaud persuaded Daveggio not to return and kill the woman, and gave the FBI tips about other crimes they knew nothing about after she was arrested in December 1997.

"She does not fit the profile of a woman who is a cold-blooded killer. Her history in life is she has been a victim," Boetsch said.

"If she were the psychopath the government makes her out to be - this evil person - she would have known better to than to spill her guts to the FBI," she said.

But Hagen disagreed, saying he felt the federal guidelines were appropriate.

The victim was "trussed up like an animal" in the back of a Dodge mini-van, he said.

"Stopping after doing one dreadful thing and avoiding another dreadful thing does not make you eligible for leniency," the judge said.

Although it was not considered in sentencing, Hagen made a reference to the California murder case, saying Michaud told FBI agents "she thought the victim might already be dead when she pulled on the end of the rope."

Investigators say a 6-foot piece of black rope was near Samson's body when it was found Dec. 4, 1997 in a snow bank off Highway 88 in Alpine County - a day after Michaud and Daveggio were arrested in Stateline, Nev., in the kidnapping case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden said he felt the sentence was "fair and just in this case."