Scott Riggleman (McLennan County Sheriff's Office)
A 63-year-old man in Texas who admitted to killing his estranged wife's dogs and then bringing their remains to the church where she worked and putting them on "display" in her employee parking space may be going to trial after a state judge refused to accept a lenient plea deal negotiated with prosecutors that included no prison time.
Nineteenth District Court Judge Thomas West on Thursday rejected a plea deal between Scott Riggleman and the McLennan County District Attorney's Office in which he pleaded guilty to two counts of cruelty to non-livestock animals, and prosecutors recommended he serve a sentence of deferred probation for 10 years, Waco, Texas CBS affiliate KWTX-TV reported.
Riggleman again faces a maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars for the pair of third-degree felonies. In addition to the animal cruelty charges, Riggleman was initially charged with one count of felony stalking and one count of making a terroristic threat, a misdemeanor. Prosecutors declined to pursue the stalking charge while the terroristic threat charge remains pending, court records show.
Judges in Texas and most other jurisdictions can reject the terms of a negotiated plea agreement, typically when they find that the punishment is too harsh or too lenient for the underlying crime. It was not immediately clear from the report if Judge West, who previously practiced as an assistant district attorney and a criminal defense attorney, provided a reason for refusing to accept the terms of the agreement.
Riggleman's attorney, Sandy Gately, and McLennan County District Attorney Josh Tetens did not immediately respond to messages from Law&Crime seeking comment and additional information on West's ruling.
According to a KWTX report, deputies with the McLennan County Sheriff's Office responded to a 911 call on Dec. 5, 2022, regarding two dead dogs in the parking lot of a church in the 9300 block of Panther Way. The caller was Riggleman's estranged wife, who identified the dogs as Smokey, her black Labrador retriever, and Frankie, her white pit bull mix. She reportedly told investigators the bodies had been placed in her reserved employee parking space.
Once there, first responders found the bodies and spoke with Riggleman's estranged wife.
"Officers also spoke with a witness, who advised that she and her husband had discovered the dogs while taking her daughter to school nearby and noted that both dogs had been stabbed and shot several times in the chest, neck and flank area of their bodies before their carcasses were laid out in a display manner in her parking space," an arrest affidavit obtained by KWTX stated.
Riggleman's wife told authorities that she and her husband had separated in September of that year, KWTX reported. A day before findings her dogs' bodies in the parking lot, she told investigators that Riggleman had come to her workplace and placed a note on her car in which he said because of the separation, he was "going to lose his beloved pets."
Additionally, she reportedly said that Riggleman had threatened to kill her, her co-workers, and himself, resulting in an emergency detention order admitting him to a medical facility.
"The victim advised that she is in fear for her life and made statements that suggest that she has altered her home and work life out of fear that the accused will hurt or kill her," investigators reportedly wrote in the affidavit. "She also believed that the dogs were left at her workplace in a manner intended to alarm her and suggest that she would also be killed by the accused."
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