Father of Dixon school shooter pleads guilty to recruiting hit man to kill ex-wife

DIXON – The father of the teen accused of opening fire with a rifle inside Dixon High School pleaded guilty to and was sentenced Thursday for trying to coordinate a scheme aimed at killing his now ex-wife.

Matthew A. Milby Sr., 50, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to solicit murder for hire after making inquiries in July 2019 about recruiting and paying a hit man $5,000 and a motorcycle to kill his then-wife, Julie Milby.

Their divorce was finalized earlier this year, according to court records.

Both are the parents to Matthew A. Milby Jr., now 21, who investigators say in May 2018 walked into Dixon High School with a 9mm semi-automatic rifle, fired at a gym teacher he encountered in a hallway, fled, and was thwarted by the school resource officer who stopped him with shots to the shoulder and hip.

Milby Jr. has yet to be tried on two counts of attempted murder and four counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm.

His fitness to stand trial was reaffirmed last month, the first time that determination has been made consecutively in the 2-year-old case.

Milby Sr. was initially indicted on two felony counts of solicitation of murder for hire in February, after police in July 2019 investigated claims that Milby Sr. was seeking to recruit someone to murder two people.

At the time, Milby Sr. was in custody of the Lee County Jail on twelve other felony charges, including trafficking, dealing and possessing methamphetamine, and resisting an officer, that stemmed from cases launched in 2018 and 2019.

According to prosecutors, police were contacted by a source that Milby Sr. from the jail contacted and questioned the source on whether he knew of someone that would accept $5,000 and a motorcycle to kill Julie.

Investigators coordinated with the source, allowing them to "capture several conversations" between him and Milby Sr. about a plan to potentially hire someone to commit the murder, prosecutors said in court Thursday.

Appearing in a yellow surgical mask and wearing rubber gloves, similar to the personal protection equipment donned by his son during his own in-person court proceedings held amid the coronavirus pandemic, Milby Sr. agreed that those were the facts of the case.

He also agreed that he delivered 5 to 15 grams of methamphetamine on Dec. 30 in 2018, entering a guilty plea in the 2018 case, which featured a range of other felony drug and resistance charges.

In exchange for his pleas Thursday, Milby Sr. received a 6-year sentence for the attempted solicitation conviction and a 4-year sentence for the meth delivery conviction.

He will serve both sentences concurrently in state prison, and will be subject to 2 years of mandatory supervised release. The 566 days he has spent in Lee County Jail will be applied against the sentences.

His plea agreement also dissolves the remaining dozen charges, and stipulates that he has a substance abuse problem, which he will receive treatment for in prison.

Milby Sr. has three convictions for possession of a controlled substance in cases dating from 1994 to 2003, and a 2006 felony conviction for using a theft detection remover in a retail theft case, all in Lee County.

He also has a 2001 burglary conviction in Whiteside County.

Rock Falls-based attorney Allison Fagerman, who represents Julie Milby, said Thursday her client has "strenuous objections" to her ex-husband's plea agreement.

"[Julie] believes the proposal is unfair," Fagerman said. "Mr. Milby is still a serious threat to himself, to her and to society."

"He has a psychotic disorder that cannot be cured by medicine or therapy," Fagerman said. "This court should not ignore that he made a substantial step to have his now ex-wife killed."