Lois Riess pleads guilty, sentenced to life without parole

Hubbard affiliate station KAAL reports, Lois Riess, the Blooming Prairie woman accused of killing her husband in 2018 pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with a firearm Tuesday afternoon.

A judge then sentenced Riess to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lois Riess back in Minnesota, being held at Steele County Jail

According to an ABC 6 News reporter at the hearing, Riess addressed the court saying, "life without David" is her true sentence, that she shouldn’t have taken his life and apologized to his family and friends.

Riess was the subject of a nationwide manhunt in March and April 2018 after allegedly shooting and killing her husband, David Riess, in their Blooming Prairie home then traveling to Florida where she befriended Pamela Hutchinson before shooting and killing her and assuming her identity. Riess was arrested ten days later in Texas.

Riess plead guilty to Hutchinson’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison in Florida in 2019, she was extradited to Minnesota earlier this year.

Lois Riess sentenced to life in prison for murdering Florida woman

In July, Riess pleaded not guilty to the charges against her in connection to her husband’s death and asked for a pretrial.

Riess will serve her sentence in Minnesota.