Kathryn Briggs: Insurance Plot, Stabbing, Trial, and Appeal

Kathryn Briggs is a Kentucky woman serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for orchestrating the October 2008 contract killing of her fiancé, Fort Hood Staff Sgt. Ryan Michael Sullivan. A Bell County, Texas jury convicted her of capital murder in April 2011 along with two soldiers she recruited to carry out the stabbing. Prosecutors said the motive was Sullivan’s $100,000 military life insurance policy, which named Briggs as the beneficiary.¹

How She Met Ryan Sullivan

Briggs first contacted Sullivan online in 2005, while he was stationed in Germany. She did not use her own name or picture. Posing as swimsuit model “Marisa Miller,” she carried on extensive photo and chat exchanges with him for roughly three years.¹

When Sullivan returned from his second Iraq deployment in early 2008, Briggs met him in person and explained the discrepancy by claiming illness had changed her appearance. Family members later testified she also invented medical conditions, including spinal surgery, to keep the story going. The two moved into an apartment on Girard Court in Killeen, Texas. By summer 2008, Briggs had left and was staying with friends in Austin.²

The Insurance Motive and the Plot

Sullivan had signed his Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance paperwork in 2006 naming Briggs as the beneficiary of a $100,000 policy. After she moved out, she told acquaintances in Austin that his death would entitle her to the money. According to prosecutors, Sullivan had planned to change the beneficiary the week after he was killed, but had not yet done so.²

Prosecutors said Briggs recruited Cpl. John Anthony Valdez Jr., an Army medic who had served with Sullivan in Iraq, to kill him. Valdez approached two other soldiers, Pfc. Kyle James Moesch and Cpl. Jeremy Jacobs, describing a “contract” and offering each $2,000. He discussed using a stun gun or chemicals to incapacitate the victim. Jacobs refused to take part in the killing and later became a key prosecution witness.¹

The Stabbing

On the night of October 10, 2008, Sullivan was stabbed at least 34 times inside his Killeen apartment. Moesch told police he walked in to find Valdez standing over the body in a ski mask and gloves; asked whether he had killed Sullivan, Valdez said yes. The two then drove to Austin to dump bloody clothing in a dumpster.³

Sullivan’s body was not found until October 14, after he missed 6:30 a.m. physical training and a 9 a.m. formation. Members of his unit called Killeen police, who found him in the living room. The autopsy ruled the death a homicide caused by multiple sharp force injuries.⁴ Sullivan, a 24-year-old graduate of Forest Hills Northern High School in Michigan, had enlisted in 2002, served two tours in Iraq, and earned the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Bronze Star. Colleagues called him the top squad leader in his battalion.¹

How Investigators Linked Briggs to the Killing

The case opened up after Jacobs provided an anonymous tip. Investigators pulled cell phone records and financial transactions that tied Briggs, Valdez, and Moesch together; at trial, prosecutors described the phone records as “footprints” tracking the three defendants’ movements and constant communication on the night of the murder.⁵

The day after Sullivan’s body was discovered, Briggs filed to collect the $100,000 insurance payout. Within two weeks she had withdrawn nearly $20,000.² When Valdez was arrested, officers recovered more than $4,000 in cash tied to Briggs. Moesch was arrested on January 2, 2009, on an evidence-tampering charge after police found $4,400 in a bank envelope in his motel room. All three were later indicted for capital murder by a Bell County grand jury, and Briggs was held on $750,000 bond.³

Even after Valdez was in custody, Briggs continued contacting him under a fake identity. She adopted the alias “Airianna Benitez” and disguised her voice on recorded jail calls. A May 2009 search warrant turned up additional cell records, financial documents, and computer hardware linking the three.³

Trial, Verdict, and Sentence

Briggs, Valdez, and Moesch were tried together in Judge Martha Trudo’s 264th District Court in Bell County beginning in April 2011. Over nine days, prosecutors Fred Barnes and Murff Bledsoe called nearly 40 witnesses and introduced 370 exhibits. Barnes called Briggs the “mastermind of the conspiracy” and the killing “the ultimate betrayal,” pointing to the 34 stab wounds and noting that Sullivan had been stabbed in both the back and the heart. Bledsoe used cell phone records to tear apart the “Airianna Benitez” persona and map the communication among the three.⁵

On April 13, 2011, the jury convicted all three defendants after less than three hours of deliberation. Each received an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.¹

The Appeal

Briggs appealed to the Third Court of Appeals of Texas, arguing that the trial court should have severed her case from those of Valdez and Moesch and that being tried together prejudiced her defense. On August 24, 2012, the court rejected that argument, holding that joinder was appropriate and that any minimal prejudice had been sufficiently mitigated. Her conviction was affirmed.⁶

1
Killeen Daily Herald. 3 Guilty of Killing Fort Hood Soldier
2
Oxygen. Friends Guilty in Ryan Michael Sullivan Murder
3
Killeen Daily Herald. Ex-Girlfriend Indicted in Soldier’s Death
4
MLive. Forest Hills Graduate Who Served in Iraq Killed Near Fort Hood
5
Killeen Daily Herald. Jury: 3 Guilty of Soldier’s Murder
6
Justia. Kathryn Nellie Briggs v. State, No. 03-11-00275-CR