Killers’ brother gets probation for perjury in UI case

The last of six perjury cases associated with the 2004 murder of a University of Idaho student has concluded with the sentencing of the murderers’ brother.

Aaron A. Wells, a 23-year-old Seattle resident, was placed on eight years probation, with a withheld jail sentence of 60 days, on two counts of perjury. He was one of six relatives or friends of the murderers convicted of lying to law enforcement officials about the death of Eric McMillan.

“This one was, in our opinion, the most egregrious” of the perjury cases, said Ken Robins, who helped prosecute the case for the state attorney general’s office.

McMillan was a 19-year-old who played cornerback on the UI football team. He was shot to death Sept. 19, 2004. Aaron Wells’ brothers, James and Matthew Wells, were convicted of second-degree murder and are serving 20-year sentences.

Robins said he was disappointed that Aaron Wells didn’t get a harsher sentence. Prosecutors had sought a seven-year prison sentence, arguing that Wells’ lies to police about the whereabouts of his brothers on the day of the killing were the most significant of all the perjury issues. But Judge John R. Stegner placed Wells on probation at his sentencing Monday in Moscow.

Five others pleaded guilty to perjury in relation to the case, with four of them serving between four and seven days in jail each. In the other case, Thomas Riggins, a nephew of the Wells brothers, served 241 days in jail.

Riggins and Aaron Wells had apparently been involved in a fight with UI football players the night before the murder, and James and Matthew Wells drove from Seattle to Moscow and went looking for McMillan after hearing of the fight, according to testimony during the murder trial.