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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

No proof of conspiracy in murder of UI football player

From staff reports

Latah County prosecutors dropped murder conspiracy charges Wednesday against a man whose uncles admitted killing a University of Idaho student.

The charges against Thomas J. Riggins were dismissed after police interviews with James and Matthew Wells on Tuesday indicated there wasn’t enough evidence to prove he had conspired with them in the murder of Eric McMillan. The victim, a 19-year-old cornerback on the UI football team, was shot in the chest and head Sept. 19 at his Moscow apartment. He died at a hospital the following day.

James J. Wells, 26, and Matthew R. Wells II, 27, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting last Friday, saying they had been looking for UI football players involved in a fight with Riggins – though they weren’t searching in particular for McMillan.

Riggins had faced charges of conspiracy and principal to murder. Prosecutors had alleged he had urged the Wells brothers to kill McMillan and provided them with ammunition at his Kent, Wash., home.

“They say unequivocally there was never a conspiracy to kill anybody,” said Thompson, noting he was unable to interview them when they had active criminal charges against them pending.

Both James and Matthew Wells shot McMillan after forcing their way into his apartment. After the shooting on Sept. 19, the brothers fled in a white BMW and led deputies from Whitman County, Wash., on a four-hour chase before the Washington State Patrol stopped their vehicle in Vantage, Wash.. Neither of the guns used in the shooting was found.