Murder suspect Lois Riess gets July court date

A Minnesota woman accused of killing her husband and a look-alike woman in Florida will be back in court in July.

Lois Riess, 56, waived her right to appear for an arraignment hearing Wednesday and was assigned a case management date of July 11, said Samantha Syoen of the Florida State Attorney's Office.

Riess, of Blooming Prairie, Minn., is being held in the Lee County jail in Fort Myers, the southwest Florida city where she faces second-degree murder charges in connection with the death of Pamela Hutchinson, who was found shot to death April 9 in a Fort Myers Beach condo.

Riess entered a not-guilty plea in writing in May.

Riess also faces the additional charges of grand theft, grand theft of a motor vehicle and criminal use of personal identification in Florida.

She is also suspected of killing her husband, David, on March 23 in the couple's Blooming Prairie home before fleeing and surfacing in Florida.

Charges are still pending in his death.

During her time on the lam, Riess allegedly stopped at an Iowa casino, then showed up in Fort Myers Beach, Fla. Surveillance video on April 5 captured Riess chatting up Hutchinson at the Smokin Oyster Brewery in Fort Myers Beach, then at the Marina Village at Snug Harbor condos, where Hutchinson was staying.

Hutchinson was found shot to death four days later, according to charges filed in Lee County.

Riess is accused of withdrawing $5,000 from Hutchinson's bank account, using her credit card to pay for a hotel room and room service, and driving her car to Texas. She also stopped at casinos in Louisiana.

In Minnesota, Riess has been charged in Dodge County for allegedly forging $11,000 in checks from her husband's business account.