Fort Hall man sentenced to 25 yearsfor second-degree murder

A 36-year-old Fort Hall man was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge David C. Nye also sentenced Colin Reese Diggie to pay $7,725 in restitution and ordered him to serve five years of supervised release after he is released from prison.

Diggie pleaded guilty on January 16, 2019.

According to court records, on the evening of January 10, 2017, at around 6:30 or 7:00 p.m., Diggie returned with his girlfriend, the victim, to her home in Fort Hall. At some point after returning to his girlfriend’s home, Diggie stabbed and killed her.

At approximately 10:30 p.m., the girlfriend’s neighbors heard a knock on their door. Upon opening their door, they saw Diggie covered in blood, holding his hands, with a look of shock. He said something unintelligible about someone having killed his girlfriend and pointed next door to the girlfriend’s house. The neighbors called 911 and officers were dispatched to that location.

Fort Hall Police Department officers initially responded to the girlfriend’s residence. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents arrived later. At the house, they found the girlfriend’s body. Her body was eventually transferred to the Ada County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy. A forensic pathologist performed an autopsy and confirmed the cause of death was a result of the multiple stab wounds.

DNA testing conducted at the FBI Laboratory confirmed that multiple items with the girlfriend’s blood on them taken from the crime scene also had the defendant’s DNA present. Additionally, the FBI Lab also confirmed that the defendant’s bloody fingerprint was found at the crime scene.

On December 12, 2017, a federal grand jury sitting in Pocatello returned an indictment charging Diggie with second-degree murder for killing his girlfriend.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Fort Hall Police Department.