Husband faces murder charges in death of Lee County physician

LEESBURG — Arrest warrants charging murder have been issued for Yathomas Riley in the death of his wife, Dr. Lisa Riley, according to officials with the Americus office of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

GBI Agent Mike Walsingham said warrants were issued by a Lee County magistrate judge today charging Yathomas Riley with murder, felony murder and aggravated assault in connection with the death of Lisa Riley, who died from a gunshot wound to the head.

The charges stem from an investigation initiated by GBI agents and the Lee County Sheriff’s Department after Yathomas Riley reported discovering her body at their Northhampton residence in Lee County on July 10.

Yathomas Riley has been in custody at the Lee County Jail since his arrest July 10 on charges unrelated to his wife’s death. Walsingham said an extensive investigation into the matter is continuing. Lisa Riley was a former emergency room physician at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.

Walsingham said no further details can be released “at this time.”

“We’ve established probable cause to take the info to magistrate court and get him to issue the warrants, but I can’t go into further detail,” he said. “The District Attorney’s office will be handling the case and we want to make sure the details are protected.”

Walsingham said an autopsy by GBI technicians was conducted and information from the autopsy was available to agents as they came to the decision to charge Yathomas Riley. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, but the pathologists looked at “the totality of the investigation,” Walsingham said.

Walsingham said Yathomas Riley was scheduled for a bond hearing at 1 p.m. Tuesday on the unrelated bond revocation charges, but he expected he would be given his first appearance in court on the murder charge at the same time.

“Our investigation is ongoing,” Walsingham said. “We will continue to follow up and investigate up until the trial.”

Yathomas Riley is a former boxer and was owner of Riley’s Boxing Gym at 2401 Dawson Road in Albany. In an incident in Miami, Fla., in 2010, Riley was charged with the attempting to kill his then girlfriend. He spent more than two years in jail before being released because of insufficient evident.