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Local Couple Held In Slaying

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By LISA A. DAVIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2008

DADE CITY - Three weeks before Timothy Scott Riggs was shot in the chest and killed outside his Clearfield, Ky., mobile home, he awoke in a Fort Lauderdale motel room to find a friend dead, his father said Tuesday.

On Monday, that friend's father, James Kent Conn, and stepmother, Katherine Louise Conn, were arrested by Pasco sheriff's detectives on warrants stemming from Riggs' slaying. The couple were indicted by a Rowan County grand jury Friday, said Kentucky State Police Detective Toby Gardner, who quickly tracked the Conns to Dade City.
James Conn was arrested on a murder warrant at his mobile home at 37922 Lake Gilbert Circle, off U.S. 301. His wife was arrested on a complicity of murder charge at The Home Depot in Zephyrhills, where she worked as a cashier.

They were being held without bail Tuesday at the Land O' Lakes Jail.

Gardner wouldn't release many details of the killing, saying only that Riggs, 28, died Oct. 29 after he went to see who was in a car that pulled up outside his home about 9 p.m. He was shot once with a handgun and died at the scene, Gardner said.

James Conn, 50, who at the time lived in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., quickly became a "person of interest," Gardner said, but declined to say why. Katherine Conn, 38, was with her husband when Riggs was shot, the detective said.
John Riggs of Owingsville, Ky., said Tuesday that he thinks his son was slain because James K. Conn blamed Timothy Riggs for the death of James Brent Conn.

The two young men went to Florida to score prescription pills to feed their addictions, John Riggs said. His son had told him he was hooked on drugs, such as oxycodone.

"He told me he couldn't get up or make it through the day without doing them," Riggs said.

After the two friends bought drugs in Fort Lauderdale, Riggs said, they popped pills and drank back at their motel room.

"My boy called me the next morning," Riggs recalled. "He said, 'I'm scared to death.'

"

According to the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, James B. Conn died Oct. 5 from an accidental drug overdose.

On Oct. 29, Riggs spoke with his son for the last time - about 30 minutes before he was shot. Both avid hunters, they talked briefly about their next trip, but Timothy said they'd have to chat later because he had friends over. The father had been trying to reach his son all weekend but couldn't reach him until that day.

The younger Riggs, a landscaper, said he was busy working, his father recalled.

"He didn't want me to worry," the elder Riggs said somberly during a telephone interview.

It turned out, the father said, that Timothy Riggs had gone into hiding after hearing the elder James Conn was looking for him.

"He heard that the guy was going to kill him, and he hid out all weekend," Riggs said.

That Monday, Timothy Riggs returned.

"He thought it was safe to come home," the father said.

Riggs, 54, said he hopes the Conns will be convicted and locked up for life.

He said he understands the elder James Conn's pain but that Timothy Riggs wasn't to blame.

"You just don't do people like that," Riggs said.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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