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Court appearance set in murder case
NEW MADRID, Mo. — A woman accused of stabbing her grandmother to death is scheduled to return to court.
Ashley M. Riggins, 34, who is charged with first degree murder, armed criminal action, two counts of abuse or neglect of a child, tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse, is scheduled to appear in Division I of New Madrid County Circuit Court at 10 a.m. Nov. 10 before 34th Judicial Circuit Judge William Edward Reeves. The charges stem from the murder of Dottie Lutes, 73, whose body was discovered Aug. 3 in a field at Charleston, Mo.
The investigation into Lutes’s death began after a family member went to her home in Morehouse, Mo., that she was sharing with Riggins, Riggins’s boyfriend Rayshand C. Lyons and Riggins’s three children.
The family member alerted law enforcement after he found blood spatter on the walls of the house, bloody drag marks on the floor and the three children at home alone.
Police traced Riggins and Lyons to Charleston where they were arrested.
Riggins refused to speak with officers following her arrest, however Lyons did talk with officers. According to the probable cause statement, Lyons stated initially they had planned to take money and a firearm from Lutes. During the robbery, the man told officers Riggins struck her grandmother with a blade multiple times and admitted to also stabbing the woman with a small knife and knocking her to the floor as the two women fought.
In the probable cause statement, Lyons also detailed how they removed the woman from the house and taking her to Charleston, where they abandoned the body.
Riggins was ordered bound over to Division I of New Madrid County Circuit Court following a preliminary hearing on Nov 19.
Riggins’s request for a bond reduction was denied in August. She was also ordered to have no contact with the minor victims in the case.
A preliminary hearing is set for 10 a.m. Nov. 6 for Lyons.