A prosecutor raised a financial motive today in the murder trial of a man who is accused of stabbing his mother and father to death three years ago in their Sacramento home.
Matthew David Riley, 33, had been facing eviction from his apartment in Auburn, Deputy District Attorney Chris Ore told a Sacramento Superior Court jury in his opening statement. Riley's parents, Steven and LInda Riley, had told friends and co-workers that they did not want him to move in with them, Ore said. The two also had updated a will and trust in which the defendant was named as a beneficiary, according to the prosecutor.
Steve Riley, 54, and Linda Riley, 53, each were stabbed 19 times, police said. Ore said investigators obtained a virtual match between Matthew Riley's footprints and those that forensic investigators lifted from his parents home on Paddle Wheel Court, just off Garden Highway in the South Natomas area.
Riley's attorney, Assistant Public Defender David Lynch, declared in his opening statement that his client was innocent. Lynch said the prosecution's case mostly consists of matters that "could have" taken place, but with no definitive proof that they did.
Lynch said Riley's mother was "fine" with him moving back in with them.
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