Another accused in student’s death

At the end of September, as a grand jury was convened in Latah County, Idaho, prosecutor Bill Thompson suggested the investigation into the killing of University of Idaho football player Eric McMillan would not end with the arrest of Seattle-area brothers Matthew and James Wells.

Friday, the Wells brothers’ 23-year-old nephew, Thomas J. Riggins of Kent, Wash., made his first court appearance in King County Superior Court after having been accused of soliciting the murder of McMillan.

Riggins, who had not previously been identified as a suspect in the case, was arrested Thursday in Kent. He was indicted on the charges of being a principal to first-degree murder and murder conspiracy.

“We have been aware of Mr. Riggins’ identity since shortly after the murder occurred,” Thompson said Friday.

He said Riggins was being held in Kent and had not waived his extradition to Idaho. Riggins’ uncles, who are being held in the Whitman County Jail, also were indicted on one count each of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Though Thompson said “no motive has been conclusively established,” the grand jury’s findings paint a clearer picture of what authorities believe were the events leading to the Sept. 19 killing. The indictment also describes Riggins’ alleged role in McMillan’s death.

Riggins is accused of asking his uncles to kill McMillan and giving them the ammunition to do it when the Wellses came to Riggins’ home in Kent. The brothers then left the Seattle area early that Sunday morning and drove to Moscow, Idaho.

The indictment does not say that Riggins drove with his uncles to Moscow, but it does say he drove around Moscow with them looking for McMillan.

At a little after 5 p.m., the brothers found the 19-year-old McMillan at his Moscow apartment and shot him in the chest when he opened the door, according to the indictment and police accounts. McMillan died at a hospital early the next morning.

Police say the Wellses then fled in a white BMW and led Whitman County deputies on a four-hour, high-speed chase before Washington State Patrol stopped their vehicle in Vantage, Wash., 150 miles away. Riggins was not with his uncles when they were arrested, Thompson said Friday.

The Wellses, who grew up in Seattle and attended college out of state, do not appear to have any prior connection to McMillan, who moved to Moscow from California.

It has been widely reported that McMillan and teammates were present at a local bar where players were involved in a fight the night before the shooting. Though McMillan was not involved in the fight after a Vandals-Cougars game in Pullman, a teammate suggested to USA Today that the incident may have some connection to McMillan’s death.

That incident is still under investigation, Latah County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Robin Eckmann said Friday. She declined to say whether Riggins was somehow involved in the bar incident.