Michelle Riley is the Illinois woman who has plead guilty in the torture-slaying of a developmentally disabled woman and her unborn child. She is one of six people charged in the torture death of Dorothy Dixon in January 2008.
Michelle Riley - Mugshot
Michelle Riley, 37-years-old apparently has decided the sentencing for pleading guilty to the murder charges against her is preferable to standing trial and almost certainly facing a much harsher sentence. On Monday, October 26, 2009, she plead guilty in the Madison County Circuit Court to the charges of first-degree murder in Edwardsville, Illinois. Her guilty plea is in exchange for a sentence of 30 to 45 years in prison. Her sentencing date hasn’t been set, but she will be required to serve her complete sentence.
Riley and five other people are charged with torturing Dorothy Dixon, 29-years-old, and her fetus over a a two-month period of time resulting in Dixon’s death. Dixon, a mentally disabled person, was found dead on January 31, 2008. She had been tortured for at least two months. She was tortured with a motorized dish scrubber, scalded with boiling water, shot with a BB gun, burned with a glue gun and hit with a plunger, ax handle and aluminum bat. She was forced to live in the basement of the house they shared and given only a thin rug to sleep on. Her torturers burned her clothes, forcing her to walk around naked. She was only able to eat what she was able to get from the upstairs refrigerator, but when she ventured upstairs she was shot with a BB gun by the other residents of the rented house. Both she and her unborn child died as a result of the on-going abuse and assaults.
Dixon had a one-year-old child at the time of her death. He had been living in the basement with his mother and was just 15-pounds when he was taken into custody at the time of her death.
Alton Police Chief David Hayes has reported that Riley was the ringleader of the gang that tortured Dixon. The only motivation for the cruelty to the developmentally disabled woman seems to have been to collect her Social Security check. The two women had lived together for several years.
The other defendants in the case are Judy E. Woods, 44-years-old, Benny L. Wilson, 18-years-old, Riley’s daughter LeShelle McBride, 17-years-old and Michael J. Elliott, 20-years-old. The other defendant is Riley’s 12-year-old son (now 14-years-old) who was tried as a juvenile. He was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 60 days of detention and five years probation.
Michelle Riley - Photos
October 28th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
They should all get the death penalty…maybe they will in prison. Street justice will catch up with the punk kid on probation. Disgusting vermin; all.