Lee County death investigation continues

ALBANY — Georgia Bureau of Investigations officials said Saturday they were continuing their investigation into the death of Lisa Marie Riley, 34, on the 500 block of Northhampton Road in Lee County.

According to a Lee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Lee County deputies responded to a call to the residence around 8:30 a.m. Friday after Riley’s husband, Yathomas Riley, told officers he’d found her dead. The investigation was turned over to the GBI.

Officials have not yet stated whether Lisa Riley, a former emergency room physician at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, died from natural causes, foul play or if she took her own life. Lee County Coroner Ronald Rowe said the deceased will be transported to a GBI crime lab on Monday to undergo an autopsy.

Lee Sheriff’s officials say Yathomas Riley was arrested Friday and transported to the Lee County Jail on an unrelated charge of bond revocation, where he remained on Saturday.

An Internet search shows Yathomas Riley to be a professional light-heavyweight boxer and owner of Riley’s Boxing Gym at 2401 Dawson Road in Albany. According to an article in the Miami New Times, Riley grew up in Miami and began his boxing career in San Diego.

In 2010, after he’d returned to Miami, Riley was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of his then-girlfriend, 31-year-old Koketia King, the Miami New Times article states. Riley spent more than two years in jail without trial, according to the article.

According to the New Times account, Riley claimed King, who was shot in the leg and head, had tried to commit suicide because he’d threatened to leave her.

“She tried to prove to herself she loved me, and she shot herself,” Riley told the 911 operator, according to the Miami New Times.

King, a state corrections officer, survived the wounds, the New Times article states, and claimed it was Riley who had shot her. In turn, Riley claimed she shot herself after Riley caught her filing fraudulent tax forms for inmates. According to the Miami New Times, Riley spent more than two years in a Miami jail before he was released for insufficient evidence.