Lois Riess pleads guilty to husband’s murder, sentenced to life in prison without parole

Author: CBS Minnesota
Published: Updated:
Lois Ann Riess mug shot. Photo via Lee County Sheriff's Office.
Lois Ann Riess (Credit: LCSO booking photo)

Lois Riess, who triggered a nationwide manhunt in 2018, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after entering a guilty plea Tuesday.

According to court records, Riess had a pretrial hearing in Dodge County District Court Tuesday afternoon. There, she entered an amended plea to guilty as part of a plea agreement. She was subsequently sentenced to life without parole on first-degree premeditated murder.

Riess is convicted of killing her husband, David, who was found shot in their home in 2018. Riess then went on the run to Florida. While there, she killed a woman named Pamela Hutchinson. Prosecutors say it was because Hutchinson looked like Riess, and Riess was trying to steal her identity.

After a month-long manhunt, Riess was finally caught in South Padre Island, Texas on a bar’s surveillance camera. She pleaded guilty to murdering Hutchinson and was sentenced to life in prison.

Riess was brought to Minnesota in early July to face charges in her husband’s death.

Riess was already sentenced to life in prison for murdering Pamela Hutchinson on Fort Myers Beach.

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