Sentencing set in Ill. torture killing

 
Updated 2/5/2010 9:40 AM

EDWARDSVILLE -- An Illinois woman awaits sentencing in the murder of a pregnant, developmentally impaired mother who police say was beaten with a plunger handle, burned with a hot glue gun and used for target practice with a BB pistol.

Thirty-seven-year-old Michelle Riley pleaded guilty in October to first-degree murder in the death of 29-year-old Dorothy Dixon. Riley faces between 30 and 45 years in prison, and she's scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
 

Investigators in Madison County say Dixon was a mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way when she was found dead in January 2008 at a house in Alton.

Four other people, including three teenagers, await trial on first-degree murder charges. Riley's teenage son has been sentenced as a juvenile to probation.