Year in jail given in hitman case

By Matt Pordum

Friday, Jan. 7, 2005 | 8:24 a.m.

A woman accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill her husband is to spend the next year in the Clark County Detention Center.

District Judge John McGroarty gave Nan Millen a suspended sentence of 44 to 60 months in prison and five years of probation with the first year to be served in jail.

She allegedly asked an undercover Metro Police officer to kill her husband, Richard Millen.

Nan Millen, 66, entered an Alford plea to one count of solicitation to commit murder. Under an Alford plea a defendant technically does not admit guilt but agrees that prosecutors could prove their case at trial.

Millen had been scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 20, but her attorney, Andrew Leavitt, citing a possible mix-up by the Department of Parole and Probation, had the sentencing rescheduled to Thursday.

Leavitt argued that the Parole and Probation officer who was handling Millen's pre-sentencing report had led Millen to believe the department would recommend probation. Leavitt also said the officer who signed off on the recommendation of two years in prison for Millen was not the same officer who wrote the report.

But on Thursday, Millen's Parole and Probation officer testified that she never told Millen the department would recommend probation.

Prosecutors said Millen had been caught on video and audiotape by authorities as she talked with the undercover officer about when, where and how she wanted her husband killed.

Prosecutors said when they confronted Millen and her lawyer with the tapes, they "knew they had no defense and didn't want to go to trial."

Millen's attorney, Andrew Leavitt, argued that Millen was never serious about going forward with the hit on her husband.

"This was a game she was playing," Leavitt said. "She was a lonely woman and this gave her some excitement in her life."

Prosecutors said Millen said she was "verbally abused" by her husband, but getting a divorce wasn't a good enough solution for her.

Another case in which a woman allegedly tried to have a man killed is pending in the courts. It involves the 38-year-old ex-wife of a Henderson Police sergeant. She is scheduled to be tried June 13 before District Judge Jackie Glass.

Florela McCorkle, also known as Florela Virginia Martinez, faces charges of solicitation to commit murder and attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon on a police officer. Her ex-husband is Sgt. Richard McCorkle.

Metro Police allege she hired an undercover detective posing as a hitman. McCorkle was arrested on June 15 after the detective was paid $1,000 during a second meeting. McCorkle is alleged to have given specific orders that Richard McCorkle be shot while in uniform and then mutilated, according to the arrest report.