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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

6-Year Sentence for Torture & Murder

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (CN) - An 18-year-old woman was sentenced to 6 years in prison for her role in the 2008 torture-murder of a pregnant, developmentally disabled woman. LeShelle McBride, one of six defendants, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Federal prosecutors said she was the "least culpable" of the six defendants.

McBride's attorney told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she could be free in 2 to 8 months, with credit for time served.

McBride is one of six people charged in the death of Dorothy Dixon, 29, who was repeatedly assaulted by the people she lived with in an Alton, Ill. home.

Dixon, who was pregnant when she died, was beaten, scalded with hot water and burned with a glue gun for months.

McBride's mother, Michelle Riley, collected Dixon's disability checks and dominated everyone in the house, prosecutors say. Dixon was denied money and clothing and was treated as a slave.

Prosecutors said McBride was aware of the abuse, but her participation was minimal. Her good record at school, her previously clean criminal record and her age at the time, 15, were factors in the lenient sentence.

Prosecutors say Riley was the ringleader. Riley, 37, was sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in February.

Benny L. Wilson, 19, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.

Judy E. Woods, 45, and Michael J. Elliott, 21, are awaiting trial and are charged with first-degree murder. A 12-year-old boy was found guilty of second-degree murder in juvenile court and was sentenced to 60 days and 5 years probation.

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