Illinois woman guilty in torture-slaying

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill., Oct. 27 (UPI) -- A woman charged with torturing and slaying a developmentally disabled Illinois woman and her unborn child has pleaded guilty, prosecutors say.

Michelle Riley, 37, agreed to plead guilty to murder charges in Edwardsville, Ill., Monday in exchange for a sentencing range of 30 to 45 years in prison, the St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch.

Riley is one of six people charged with torturing Dorothy Dixon, 29, and her fetus in a rented Alton, Ill., house over a two-month period, resulting in her death. The Post-Dispatch said Dixon was hit with a plunger, tortured with a electric dish scrubber, burned with boiling water and shot with a BB gun before she died in January 2008.

Alton Police Chief David Hayes told the newspaper that Riley was the ringleader of the torture gang, collecting Dixon's Social Security check.

"Because she had control of the money, she had control of the house," Hayes said, adding that he hopes Riley receives a sentence at the top of the plea deal's range.