Despite criminal history, wife played no part in deadly Fresno shootout

FRESNO — The wife of dead murder suspect Ricky Liles, who was involved in a fatal standoff with authorities in the small town of Minkler last Thursday, has her own criminal history, court documents show.

The court records show that Diane Liles once threatened to shoot her supervisor and then turn the gun on herself, rather than go to jail. Liles is the wife of Ricky Liles, who fatally wounded two Fresno area peace officers in a shootout at his mobile home last week before turning the gun on himself. Diane Liles is not suspected of any wrongdoing in last week’s deadly confrontation, however.

The court documents say that Diane Liles, who had the last name Shepard in 2005, threatened to kill her supervisor when she worked as a security guard. According to the Sanger police reports, Liles was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon after she pointed the gun at her supervisor.

Her supervisor, Luis Antonio Aguirre, had told Liles she would be disciplined for not being at her post at a Sanger subdivision back on June 7, 2005.

The police report stated “that she was going to kill him and then kill herself.” She then pulled out her gun and yelled that Aguirre was “going to die.”

Aguirre then sped away in his car and Liles followed before breaking her pursuit.

Liles told Sanger police a different version, however. She said that her gun remained under her seat during the confrontation. She admitted to cursing and telling Aguirre that if she lost her job she would be unable to pay child support and would “rather kill herself.”

She denied threatening to kill Aguirre and said that when she stepped out of her car, he sped away and his truck hit her vehicle’s door, which struck her.

Liles served about 70 days in Fresno County Jail before pleading no contest to criminal threats. Jail records say she was released on Aug. 25, 2005.

Liles then completed two years of probation in 2008, which allowed her charge to be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, according to Fresno County Superior Court documents.

Despite her criminal history, Fresno police Lt. Mark Salazar said that Liles “had no part” in her husband’s shootout with authorities and that she didn’t supply any ammunition or shoot any officers.

After being interviewed by police, Liles said she could not talk her husband out of his plans to confront officers. Liles, who survived by lying face down on a bedroom floor while hundreds of bullets struck their mobile home, told police later that she was sorry about what happened.

Liles also told police that her husband had talked several times in recent months of his intentions of shooting officers and then taking his own life rather than going to prison.

Despite criminal history, wife played no part in deadly Fresno shootout was last modified: July 24th, 2011 by admin
Categories: Fresno

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Lorenzo Reyna

Lorenzo Reyna is a freelance crime reporter and sports writer in the Fresno area. He is the founder and owner of RedZoneFrenzy.com, which covers California State University, Fresno sports. Before creating the new website, he was a sports reporter at both Scout.com and CSU Fresno's campus newspaper, The Collegian. You can reach him at lorenzo.reyna805@gmail.com