NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT CAST ON TWO EXTRADITION CASES

Various Sources

Within the span of a month Associate Judge/Magistrate Louis Sorola has sat on two extradition hearings involving defendants caught in the national spotlight.

The first extradition order issued by Sorola involved Jeff Henry, the co-owner of Schlitterbahn Water Parks charged wtih murder in the death of a 10-year-old boy who was decapitated in Kansas when his neck was caught in a metal loop holding up a tarp in one of the park's water rides.

At that March 28 extradition hearing, Sorola gave Kansas authorities a week to take Henry to Kansas saying that the county taxpayers shouldn't have to bear the cost of holding him the required 10-day period.

Kansas uthorities contend that neither Henry nor his assistant had the engineering background to construct the ride that has resulted in other injuries to other people.

Today Sorola ordered the extradition of Lois Riess, of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, charged with killing two people, one of them her husband David Riess, and the other Pamela Hutchinson, a Florida woman she befriended in Fort Meyers, then killed her and stole her car and identity. Minnesota and Florida have 10 days to move Riess. Sorola ruled that the first state to send their authorities to retrieve her will get her.

Minnesota authorities say she shot her husband to death in their worm farm in late March. They believe she stole his money to go gambling in Iowa before traveling to Florida. Riess, 56, is currently being held in the Cameron County Jail on charges that include murder with a firearm until Florida authorities take her back to face murder charges for the killing of a woman there.

His body was found at the farm home in late March. 

The Washington Post reported that "Investigators believe that on March 23, Riess drove to a bank in Glenville, Minn., and forged her husband’s signature to cash more than $10,000 in stolen checks from him and his business, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. After that, investigators say she spent the day gambling at Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood, Iowa."

Investigators believe Lori Riess then fled to Florida where she killed Pamela Hutchinson in Fort Myers Beach, intending to steal her identity. That’s where she met and soon befriended 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson, authorities said.

On April 5, Riess was caught on surveillance video dining with Hutchinson at the Smokin’ Oyster Brewery during happy hour, police said. Other surveillance photographs captured Riess and Hutchinson together at Hutchinson’s Fort Myers Beach condo, where, several days later, on April 9, police said they found Hutchinson dead.

Authorities believe she used the same firearm to kill Hutchinson that she allegedly used to kill her husband. Inside the condo, Hutchinson’s purse had been emptied. Her identification was missing along with her car.

Police said they believe Riess stole them to assume Hutchinson’s identity, since the two looked alike.
In the days after Hutchinson’s death, her 2005 white Acura with Florida tags was spotted in Louisiana and outside Corpus Christi, Tex., which is a few hours up the coast from South Padre Island.

The U.S. Marshals Service and local Florida and Minnesota authorities all warned that Riess was considered armed and dangerous, urging anyone who spotted her to alert police but stay away from her. Florida authorities are saisd to be considering asking for the death penalty in the case.

Finally, around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, marshals located her at the Sea Ranch Restaurant. Before that, George Higginbotham, and other employees at Dirty Al's Lounge reported to police that they had spotted Riess there.

She didn’t look armed and dangerous, said Sea Ranch restaurant manager Becky Galvan, and she did not appear suspicious. Galvan said she had been sitting there for about an hour and a half, when she got a call from law enforcement notifying her that there was a customer in her restaurant named Lois Riess, whom they were coming to arrest.

It happened within seconds,” Galvan said. “They came in and they left.”

John Kinsey, a deputy U.S. marshal, told The Washington Post that it was unclear whether Riess was on her way to Mexico. He said she had checked in at a local hotel.

“She paid up for a couple of weeks,” he said.

The marshals found Hutchinson’s car in a nearby parking lot.