Former Richmond couple facing charges of raping young girl

LOGAN — An former Richmond man, currently in prison for murdering a Preston man, has been transferred back to the Cache County Jail on charges that he and a former Richmond woman raped a young girl. James K. Pilgrim was booked Wednesday after being transported from the Idaho State Prison, where the 45-year-old is serving a 25-years-to life sentence.

Cache County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Matt Bilodeau said Pilgrim and 37-year-old Melissa J. Tilley are suspected of sexually abusing a four-year-old girl. The crime allegedly occurred in January 2009. Both were acquaintances of the victim.

Prosecutors have charged Pilgrim with rape of a child and Tilley with sodomy on a child, both first-degree felonies. Each charge could carry a sentence of five-years-to-life in prison.

Court records show Pilgrim appeared in 1st District Court Thursday afternoon. He was assigned a public defender and ordered to be held without bail. He will appear again in court June 5.

Tilley reportedly lives in Florida now. She is scheduled to appear again in court Tuesday afternoon.

In April 2015, Pilgrim was sentenced to prison for murdering 43-year-old Chad Andrus and threatening to kill another man during a fight. He previously pleaded guilty to murder, a second-degree felony and aggravated assault with a firearm.


[email protected]

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.