Kalamazoo, MI: Man who allegedly stabbed, killed girlfriend had history of domestic violence; Her sister said, 'Someday, he's going to kill you'

Published: Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 6:58 PM Updated: Thursday, June 17, 2010, 8:37 AM
Kathy Jessup | Kalamazoo Gazette
View full sizeScott Harmsen | Kalamazoo Gazette
Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Officers were still at the scene of a fatal stabbing on 633 West North Street this morning.

KALAMAZOO — ”We told her, ‘Someday, he’s gonna kill you’.”

Those words from Bessie Dixon, the older sister of 46-year-old stabbing victim Delores Givhan, allegedly became reality late Tuesday night.

Givhan’s family members say Richard Douglas Riddle, 55, of Kalamazoo, repeatedly stabbed Givhan to death late Tuesday in the last of what they claim was a series of violent domestic confrontations involving the pair.

Riddle is on parole for earlier attacks on Givhan.

As of late Wednesday, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety had not officially released Riddle’s name as the suspect they had in custody. The case was scheduled to go to the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office for charges early today.

Michigan Department of Corrections records show Riddle was paroled from state prison in November on a conviction stemming from 2006 and 2008 domestic assaults involving Givhan.

“He went to prison for beating her up really bad and was out on parole,” Dixon said Wednesday. “She was very frightened of him and he wouldn’t leave her alone. We told her he was going to kill her.”

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Richard Riddle
Scott Overholt, Kalamazoo County’s personal protection order intake coordinator, said there is no record of Givhan seeking a restraining order against Riddle.

Dixon said her conversations with a person who allegedly witnessed Tuesday night’s stabbing painted shocking images of her sister’s final moments.

“She was begging him and asking him what did she do?” Dixon said a witness told her. “He didn’t have no regrets. He stood over her dying body and say she deserved it and then he walked over her body and left out the door.”

Dixon said she didn’t know what might have touched off the confrontation, but said Riddle may have been looking for her sister for several days.

“He would always go off on her,” said Howard Givhan, of Kalamazoo, the victim’s younger brother. “That’s one of the reasons I told her to stay away.”

According to Dixon, her sister had four children — the youngest, 11, who lives in Kalamazoo with her father — and nine grandchildren. She’s also had two brothers and four sisters.

Dixon described her sister as a “sweet person, the joker of the family.”

“She was not a saint ... and had been in some trouble, minor things,” Dixon said. “She would run away from a fly and maybe that’s why he treated her that way.”

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Delores Givhan
Dixon and Howard Givhan both said later Wednesday that they had not slept since being called around 1 a.m. with the news their sister was dead.

“It hurts when you lose a loved one, period,” Dixon said. “But to lose someone so gruesome like this, you can’t get it out of your head.”

Kalamazoo Public Safety Assistant Chief Brian Uridge said the murder weapon has been recovered and that witnesses are cooperating with investigators and have identified the man police have in custody as Givhan’s attacker.

Uridge said the original 911 call around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday indicated a victim had sustained a stab wound to the arm.

“But the victim was dead at the scene when officers arrived,” he said. “We’re still trying to put it all together. We’re not sure yet what set this off. It’s tragic.”

According to Uridge, investigators are rechecking an earlier department statement that said the assailant left the crime scene in a car with another subject. “We don’t know for sure if there was a second person,” Uridge said.

Killing No.3

Delores Givhan becomes at least the third area woman allegedly killed by a boyfriend in Kalamazoo County since April, while another woman remains missing.

On April 8, Jenny Bickings, 26, was shot in the head in Texas Township by her boyfriend of five years, Michael Cowling, 40, of Kalamazoo, police said. Cowling then killed himself.
On May 22, Courtney Delano, 19, was shot and killed at a Portage apartment complex. Her boyfriend, Rollon Marko, 26, is charged with killing her and her unborn baby.

Contact Kathy Jessup at kjessup@kalamazoogazette.com or 269-388-8590.