Published Tuesday, June 25, 2019 | 9:14 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, June 25, 2019 | 3:51 p.m.
A retired Las Vegas police detective was granted release to house arrest on $1 million bail on Tuesday ahead of trial next year in what a prosecutor called the execution of her unarmed former son-in-law at her home.
Pamela Rene Bordeaux stood in custody in court and said nothing while her attorney, Robert Draskovich, characterized her as a 55-year-old grandmother of two who served in the U.S. Army, spent 23 years as a Las Vegas police officer and owns her own home.
Draskovich said outside court that Bordeaux would post bail to leave jail, where she spent more than two months following her arrest in the April 22 slaying of 32-year-old Sean Babbitt. The trial is scheduled Feb. 3.
Clark County District Court Judge Valerie Adair said she set a high bail to prevent Bordeaux from fleeing to avoid the possibility of life in prison without parole if she's convicted. Bordeaux also uses the last name Schoening.
Prosecutor Michelle Fleck cast the slaying of a shoeless Babbitt following a weekly one-hour supervised visit with his 3-year-old son as unprovoked and "an absolute execution."
"There's zero evidence of anything but an ambush," Fleck told the judge.
Bordeaux and Babbitt were alone in the vestibule of Bordeaux's house, and Bordeaux's daughter and grandson were upstairs. Fleck said Babbitt had been asking his ex-wife's family to allow him more visitation time with his son.
Bordeaux emerged from the home when police arrived and admitted shooting Babbitt, police said.
Fleck said Bordeaux emptied her gun into the man, shooting him at least 10 times, including once through the head.
Bordeaux's attorneys cast the killing as self-defense in response to threats they said he posed to Bordeaux and her family.
In court filings, they characterized Babbitt as having "serious mental health issues" and having apologized in writing for being a self-described danger to his ex-wife and their son.
