Slain Gulf Soldier’s Widow Sentenced to Life
The widow of a Persian Gulf War soldier was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for plotting the 1991 murder of her husband to cash in on his insurance policy.
Toni Cato Riggs, 25, who was convicted of first-degree murder on June 8, received the mandatory sentence for conspiring with her brother to kill her husband, Anthony Riggs.
Prosecutors had argued that Riggs hired her brother, Michael Cato, to shoot her husband outside the couple’s Detroit home just days after he returned from Saudi Arabia where he served as a Patriot missile crewman.
The national media had initially portrayed the incident as a symbol of violence in the United States--a combat veteran who was felled by a random drive-by shooting just days after returning from the Persian Gulf.
Riggs had collected $150,000 in life insurance money after her husband’s death.
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