HERKIMER COUNTY --
Insisting she was carrying out the wishes of a dying man, Jennifer Riesel admitted her guilt in a sensational murder for hire case in Herkimer County. She was accused of running over Francis Nelson, 74, last fall, claiming the Little Falls man offered to pay her $180,000 to do it. The Herkimer Telegram newspaper reports it was Nelson who chose the way his death would play out. The paper also reports Nelson had several life insurance policies, but nothing in the amount Riesel claimed and none listed her as the beneficiary.
Riesel is expected to get 16 years in prison when she is sentenced next month. As part of the guilty plea, she admits to tying up Nelson and running him over in a farmer's field in September in Little Falls. Riesel told the court that is exactly how the man wanted to die because he was terminally ill. There are reports police say they spoke with other people who made the same claim: that Nelson approached them and asked them to do the same thing. CNYcentral reported in October of last year that the daughter of Francis Nelson does not believe that her father's death was an assisted suicide.
