Minn. woman who led police on nationwide manhunt pleads guilty to killing husband, gets life without parole
MINNEAPOLIS _ Lois Riess pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Tuesday in the death of her husband in 2018 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
John Stiles, spokesman for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office was handling the prosecution, confirmed the sentence.
In July, Riess, 58, who was recently extradited from Florida to Minnesota for killing her husband pleaded not guilty in Dodge County District Court.
After the killing in her Blooming Prairie home, she was the subject of a nationwide search that lasted nearly a month. Authorities charged her with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of her husband, David, in March 2018. After killing him, she went to Fort Myers Beach, Florida, and befriended a woman who had a similar appearance.
Riess admitted she later fatally shot Pamela Hutchinson, 59, in her rented condo room and stole her identity.
She fled to Texas in Hutchinson's car, according to authorities, making stops at casinos in Louisiana. She was arrested in Hutchinson's death on April 19, 2018, in South Padre Island.
Riess pleaded guilty in December to first-degree murder for the killing of Hutchinson in Lee County Court and was sentenced to life in prison.
_Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
