GUILTY Fugitive Lois Riess, 56, arrested by US Marshals for alleged murders in MN and FL, Mar 2018

[SeesSeas]

Lois Riess pleads guilty to First-Degree murder, sentenced to life in prison
Updated December 17, 2019 4:42 PM EST
A grandmother accused of killing a woman on Fort Myers Beach was in court Tuesday. Lois Riess withdrew her previous plea of not guilty to enter a guilty plea, receiving a sentence of life in prison.
[...]
The State withdrew the possibility of the death penalty in exchange for the guilty plea. Hutchinson’s family was supportive of the decision as they sought for her to be incarcerated for life.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Richard Montcalvo said, “We feel this is an appropriate resolution to an awful case, just a case but we believe that justice has been done here for the family and for the citizens of Southwest Florida.”


Lois Riess pleads guilty to 2018 homicide of Pamela Hutchinson, gets life sentence
Updated 3:44 p.m. ET Dec. 17, 2019
The family of Pamela Hutchinson had one wish, that the person responsible for her death would never be released from prison.

They got that wish Tuesday when Lois Riess, charged with first-degree murder in the 2018 shooting death of the Bradenton woman on Fort Myers Beach, entered a guilty plea and accepted a life sentence.
[...]
Riess’ withdrawal of her previous not guilty plea and her decision to plead guilty to murder and three other charges in the case ends Lee County’s role in her prosecution.

The 57-year-old Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, woman also waived extradition to her home state and will face trial there for the 2018 killing of her husband, David Leonard Riess, 54, at their home in Blooming Prairie.
[...]
"A life sentence is a life sentence in Florida, so whatever happens in Minnesota is irrelevant to what happened here today.”
[...]

 

[SeesSeas]

Former fugitive Lois Riess pleads guilty to Florida murder, sentenced to life
Updated: 5:46 PM CST December 17, 2019
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Former fugitive Lois Riess was sentenced to life in prison after a court appearance during which she changed a plea and admitted her guilt in the murder of a Florida woman.

Riess appeared in a Fort Myers courtroom for what was supposed to be a pre-trial hearing in the April 2018 shooting death of 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson, a woman Riess had just met while on the run from authorities. Instead, the Fort Myers News-Press reports, Riess had her attorneys announce she was withdrawing her not guilty plea and admitting her guilt to four criminal counts: first-degree murder with a firearm, grand theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft, and criminal use of identification.

In exchange for her guilty plea, the state attorney's office withdrew a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Riess for Hutchinson's murder.
[...]
After Judge Robert J. Branning accepted her plea, Riess also waived extradition to Minnesota where she will face first-degree murder charges in the 2018 death of her husband David Leonard Riess. Riess was 54 years old when he was fatally shot at their home in Blooming Prairie.

Minnesota Attorney General's Office spokesman John Stiles confirms that they have taken over the prosecution of Lois Riess from Dodge County, a common practice when small counties encounter a complicated, high-profile case. Stiles says he expects the extradition process to begin shortly, which means Riess should be back in Minnesota within a month or two.
[...]

 

[Niner]

Whoa! Surprised me! But glad that Pamela's family has peace now....

Thanks for the updates SeesSeas! Now onto Minnesota! Hopefully she will plead guilty to that one too.

 

[Niner]

I just searched for a thread for David Riess, but there is none. Wondering if we will continue using this one for that case?

 

[Gardener1850]

I just searched for a thread for David Riess, but there is none. Wondering if we will continue using this one for that case?

I think we should keep using this thread since there does not seem to be much interest here after she was captured. I'm so glad she plead guilty and will spend the rest of her life behind bars. This is one case where I wonder if she got away with other crimes before murdering her husband and going on the run. It's a good thing she is locked up for life and I don't really care if she is kept in Florida or sent to Minnesota. All that matters is that dangerous woman is off the streets. I hope the victims' families can begin to heal. MOO.

 

[Niner]

Hey @Gardener1850 - I agree with you re keeping her in Florida or Minnesota - she is off the streets.
And okay on keeping this thread for the Minnesota case.

 

[Mominmi]

Whoa! Surprised me! But glad that Pamela's family has peace now....

Thanks for the updates SeesSeas! Now onto Minnesota! Hopefully she will plead guilty to that one too.

Yes, though silent on this thread, the updates are much appreciated.

 

[Tippy Lynn]

Lois Riess is behind bars in Minnesota, awaiting a hearing on charges that she murdered her husband.

Riess arrived in the state Friday and is being held at the Steele County Jail.

No word yet on when she'll have her first hearing in Minnesota.


Lois Reiss behind bars in Minnesota

 

[Niner]

Thanks @Tippy Lynn - I just looked her up in the Minnesota court site the other day - I must have known they were going to transfer her! LOL!

I have her on my look.up.every.day.list. !!

 

[Niner]

Wondering if we need a "new" thread for David Riess that has MN in front of it??

 

[StephanieH]

Why do we have to pay for her? Ugh.

 

[Tippy Lynn]

Lois Riess has pleaded not guilty for charges connected to the death of her husband, David Riess, in March of 2018 and has asked for a pretrial.

Tuesday was Riess's initial appearance in the Dodge County District Court.

Riess pleads not guilty in connection to her husband's death

@Niner

 

[Niner]

Thanks @Tippy Lynn ! She still is not in the Minnesota court site. I'll make a note to myself to look a bit later for her pretrial hearing. If you see anything - please post!

 

[Niner]

@Tippy Lynn - since she is not in the Minnesota court yet (just looked) - was wondering if you might be able to find her next court date?

TIA!

 

[Tippy Lynn]

@Niner

I don’t see her info on the MN Court site either and the online Dodge County Court Calendar hasn’t been updated since March.
Minnesota Judicial Branch - Dodge County District Court

She’s being held in Steele County Jail.
https://www.co.steele.mn.us/Sheriff/Inmate_Roster.pdf

 

[Niner]

@Tippy Lynn - seems to be that she is the only one smiling in her mug shot! LOL!

Tried putting in the case # on the jail site, but nothing came up with that either, and thanks for checking!

 

[Tippy Lynn]

KASSON, Minn. — A Minnesota woman has pleaded guilty to killing her husband in 2018, after being extradited from Florida where she was convicted of a different murder.

Lois Riess entered her plea during a hearing in Kasson, Minnesota on Tuesday. She pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband, David.

Riess was sentenced to life in prison without parole. During the hearing Riess apologized to her husband's friends and family, saying life without her husband is her true sentence and that she should not have killed him.

Lois Riess pleads guilty to killing her husband

 

[Niner]

Thank you for that update @Tippy Lynn - and off to my "convicted" file!

 

[ifindedout]

A deep-dive long read story from 2020 about Lois' case (another which I followed on WS long before joining) from The Atavist:

The Pretender - The Atavist Magazine

People in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, thought Lois Riess was a nice wife and grandmother. If she had a vice, it was playing the slots. Then she committed murder.

magazine.atavist.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

No one saw the qualities that would later earn her the nickname the “Killer Grandma.” In March 2018, Riess, grandmother of five, murdered her husband, David Riess, in their Blooming Prairie home. Weeks later, she killed Pamela Hutchinson in a Fort Myers Beach, Florida, hotel room, in an attempt to assume her identity.

Riess was on the run for weeks. And it was confusion over who Riess was and had become that allowed her to hide in plain sight for as long as she did, even as she left a videotaped trail of evidence of her whereabouts. She was videotaped and pictured at casinos, hotels and banks.

“One of the most bizarre cases I’ve ever dealt with,” said Fort Myers Chief State Attorney Rich Montecalvo in an interview last year with WINK News, a southwest Florida news program.

Six years after her murderous crime spree, a raft of documentaries and TV crime look-backs still grapple with how this cute, regular gal from Blooming Prairie did what she did.

According to authorities, Riess was a no-holds-bar gambling addict. No one outside her immediate family was aware of the hold it had on her. After gunning down her husband, Riess made casino stops even as she made her way south near the Mexican border.

She had stolen $100,000 from her sister to support her habit while serving as her guardian. After killing husband, Riess withdrew $11,000 from her dead husband’s bank account.

One theory is that Riess simply snapped. In a June 15, 2018, story for the Fort Myers News-Press, Dave Thomas, a forensic psychologist, theorized that Riess had become so addicted to gambling that it became an all-consuming preoccupation. Broke and with no way to sate her addiction, she was “fiending,” a term commonly used for drug addicts. She was desperate for a fix.

“When you get into serious financial trouble like that and there is no way out, at some point, your significant other’s got to go, ‘You know what? There’s nothing I can do for you,’ so you’re left on your own,” Thomas told the Fort Myers paper.

6 years later, Lois Riess, the 'Killer Grandma,' still baffles everyone

Lois Riess went on a cross-country gambling spree even as she murdered.

www.mitchellrepublic.com