A 'Most Wanted' Fugitive is Found in Florissant, Sentenced to Prison

A Florissant man was recently sentenced to federal prison for his role in a four-year counterfeit check scam that netted him more than $400,000 in four states.

In Florissant, he was known as Micah Riggins, but law enforcement from Missouri, Alabama, Florida and Texas knew him by his real name, Dante Sumlar.

The 34-year-old was listed on the U.S. Secret Service’s most wanted list and was featured on the America’s Most Wanted television show.

Sumlar was also wanted in Jacksonville, FL for questioning in the Dec. 7, 2006 death of a 32-year-old man who was found shot to death in a sport-utility vehicle.

Sumlar pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig and was sentenced Sept. 8 to 70 months in prison. The plea resolves the Eastern District of Missouri case filed in 2010, a Southern District of Alabama case filed in 2007, a Texas case filed earlier this year and pending charges in Florida from 2009.

Investigators said Sumlar passed hundreds of phony checks by using homeless people and friends who would cash checks in stores and financial institutions and then split the proceeds.

The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, FL reported in 2008 that Sumlar even taunted a Jacksonville police detective Betty Sutherland when he passed her a note at a Red Lobster where they were both dining.

“Lunch on me, Dante Sumlar. Mrs Sutherland, have a nice day,” the note said according to the story. The note and his ability to avoid arrest for so long garnered him a reputation of an “almost ‘Billy the Kid’ cult-like status,” according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

A woman who answered the phone at Sumlar’s last listed number in Florrisant said she refused to make any comment about his arrest or his recent sentencing.