The former wife of “Ghost Adventures” star Aaron Goodwin received her sentence after pleading guilty to attempting to have him killed.
Victoria Goodwin, 32, was in tears for most of her court appearance on Thursday in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Las Vegas, Nevada, as she awaited her sentence from Judge Nadia Krall. Victoria Goodwin pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in April after being caught plotting with convicted murderer Grant Amato to kill Aaron Goodwin, 49.
Victoria Goodwin was having an emotional affair with Amato during a difficult period in her marriage in 2024. Amato is currently serving a life sentence in a Florida prison after killing his parents and brother in 2019. He was the subject of a documentary series about his case, which inspired Victoria Goodwin to start a correspondence with the inmate.
Amato’s cellphone was reportedly confiscated by prison staff, revealing his correspondence with Victoria Goodwin — and the plot to murder her husband.
Victoria Goodwin texted Amato, “Am I a bad person?” Because I decided to end his life. “Not a divorce.”
Amato, who was not charged with any crimes related to the murder plot, allegedly had someone on the outside who was supposed to carry out Aaron Goodwin’s execution. According to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, Victoria Goodwin was responsible for providing Amato with “payment plans, location, anticipation, and nothing done to stop the plan once it was in motion.”
Aaron Goodwin filed for divorce after learning of the plot in March.
Law&Crime was in the courtroom when Victoria and Aaron Goodwin spoke up before Krall handed down her sentence. Clark County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Hamner argued for a harsh punishment, claiming that despite Victoria Goodwin’s lack of a criminal record prior to her conviction, she had every intention of carrying out her plan to murder her husband.
“At no point does Ms. Goodwin try to claw it back,” Hamner explained to the court.
David Brown, a defense attorney representing Victoria Goodwin, requested probation. “There is, to me, a clear line where Ms. Goodwin had abandoned the conspiracy.”
He stated, “It’s clear that by November, she had completely separated herself from the group. She’d moved on from it. “There was very little contact.” He also stated that her coconspirators were never charged with a crime related to the murder for hire.
Brown added that his client was being “extorted” for additional payments.
Victoria Goodwin’s first statement in court was an apology to the man she attempted to murder.
“Firstly, and most importantly, I would like to apologize to Aaron,” she told me. “I’m so immensely sorry for the pain and the anxiety I have caused you, and the betrayal that you undoubtedly and rightfully feel by my actions.” She promised her ex-husband, “I will bow out of your life forever,” and that she would leave Nevada and never contact him again.
Her words were: “This is my rock bottom, and I’ll never forgive myself.”
Aaron Goodwin was emotional when he spoke in court. He stated that after discovering his wife’s infidelity, including with a man he thought was named “Vincent,” but turned out to be Amato, he “gave her the option of divorce or we could try to work it out because I loved her so much.” He explained that she was filled with remorse and “didn’t want to lose” him.
“At least that’s what she told me,” he muttered.
He described discovering the depth of his affair with Amato, including the fact that the two had been “spiritually married” and she referred to Aaron Goodwin as her “first husband.” He additionally stated that she’d “put out a hit to kill me, more than once, got blackmailed, and spent all our savings to keep it quiet.”
“This has made me fear for my life,” Aaron Goodwin said through tears. “I’ve hired armed security for weeks, not knowing if it was over or not.”
He said, “It’s like a heartbreak that no one should ever have to go through. I don’t trust anything anymore. “I cry every day because I feel so alone.”
Aaron Goodwin also claimed that his ex-wife and her legal team tried to “silence” him and discouraged him from speaking up in court.
“The fact that this person did all of this to me with no concern, care, or love for me, I’ll never feel the same, feel safe, or be the same as a result of what she did. She claims she is remorseful now that she has been caught. But she had never tried to stop this from happening before.
He went on: “I feel like this deserves prison time, I don’t know.”
Krall then sentenced Victoria Goodwin to at least three years in prison, with a maximum of seven and a half years, or 90 months.
