Who are the Riveras, the family implicated in the killing of St. Cloud mother Nicole Montalvo? | Special report

[Daily Mexican]

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A look through the Rivera family’s photos on social media
suggests a tightly knit group with a love for get-togethers,
community service and family outings.

In a 2015 Facebook photo captioned, “New York fans stick
together,” a young child poses with Angel Rivera, his
grandfather, while both are wearing New York Yankees jerseys.
The child’s mother, Nicole Montalvo, commented, “That’s my baby
boy!”

Now, the 8-year-old boy is motherless. Angel Rivera and his son
Christopher Otero-Rivera —Montalvo’s estranged husband — have
been arrested on murder charges. Wanda Rivera, the family
matriarch, is accused of tampering with evidence and lying to
investigators. And Nicholas Rivera, the family’s youngest son,
is considered a person of interest in Montalvo’s killing.

Montalvo’s remains were found last month on the Riveras’ Hixon
Avenue property in St. Cloud and a vacant lot on Henry J Avenue
owned by Nicholas Rivera, who also faces eight unrelated counts
of possessing child pornography.

Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson called it “probably the most
gruesome murder scene" he’d seen in 32 years in law enforcement.

Little information has been made public about the investigation.
Affidavits filed to obtain arrest warrants have been sealed. But
records reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel, many of which have not
been previously reported, reveal a family with a history of
domestic violence and heavy involvement in their local church.

Cornerstone Family Church, run by pastor and St. Cloud Mayor
Nathan Blackwell, told the Sentinel Angel Rivera was never a
member of its staff and had not participated in its mission
trips. But a 2013 video contradicts those claims. In it,
Blackwell calls Angel Rivera the “spearhead” of a nine-year
partnership with a church in Ecuador and they discuss several
mission trips in detail.

Most of the records involve Angel Rivera, 63, who has been
arrested for numerous crimes since the early 1990s, including
domestic battery and child molestation, according to Florida
Department of Law Enforcement records. He’s also been arrested
multiple times, including in the Montalvo case, for possessing
firearms and ammunition as a convicted felon.

Otero-Rivera, 32, was repeatedly accused of abusing Montalvo
prior to her killing, including an October 2018 case in which he
was accused of kidnapping and beating her. The couple were in
the process of divorcing, and he was on probation and prohibited
by court order from contacting her when she went missing late
last month.

Records also showed the family ran several nonprofit
organizations out of a shed on their property, which they said
they used to raise money for mission trips to South America and
to establish a church chapter in St. Cloud.

Neither of Otero-Rivera’s and Angel Rivera’s attorneys responded
to a request for comment.

Angel Rivera’s oldest son, 39-year-old Giulio Rivera, in an
interview said he was driven from home by his father’s abuse. He
described Montalvo as having provided a glimmer of hope for his
family’s redemption, which makes coming to terms with her death
at their hands even harder.
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“As I grew apart from [Angel], I learned to forgive, to move on,
to live my life and let go,” he said. “So to find out that this
poor woman has been murdered, after meeting her and knowing that
she’s a wonderful person — the disappointment came from anger
and sadness because yet again, he just gets worse, and now my
younger siblings are involved.”

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A history of abuse

Little has been publicly reported about Angel Rivera’s history
of domestic violence, but court filings show he has been
repeatedly accused of attacking members of his family.

He was most recently accused of aggravated battery in March
2017, when records say he tried to stab Otero-Rivera in a
dispute over electricity being routed to a trailer where Otero-
Rivera lived with Montalvo and their son.

According to an arrest affidavit, Angel Rivera told deputies he
pulled the plug leading into the trailer after he was “tired of
them not paying for anything around the house.” During the
argument, Angel Rivera pressed a butter knife against Otero-
Rivera’s belly, prompting Otero-Rivera to call authorities.

A judge signed an order, which was later lifted, prohibiting
Angel Rivera from having contact with his son. The criminal
charges were eventually dropped.

Deputies at the time said there was “no prior history of
domestic violence” between Angel Rivera and his son.

Angel Rivera has repeatedly been accused of violence against his
other children. In 2003, he was arrested for punching his oldest
son, Giulio Rivera, in the mouth after the two got into an
argument while Giulio Rivera was trying to pick up his paycheck
for working at his father’s automotive repair business, Expert’s
Auto Tech.

An affidavit by the St. Cloud Police Department said Angel and
Wanda Rivera gave different accounts of what happened, but
agreed that Angel Rivera “may have hit” his son accidentally
while they were struggling. Police also noted “five separate,
unsolicited comments” by Angel Rivera about Giulio Rivera being
gay, each louder and angrier than the last.

“If he weren’t off with that other gay boy, he wouldn’t need
more money,” Angel Rivera said of his son, according to the
affidavit.

In an interview with the Sentinel, Giulio Rivera said he later
dropped the charges after he was told by Wanda Rivera, his
stepmother, to do so, which he said was what typically happened
after Angel Rivera was accused of attacking someone.
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He also said court records don’t thoroughly detail the extensive
history of abuse he experienced while living with Angel and
Wanda Rivera and half-siblings. On multiple occasions, his
father threatened him as a way to keep him quiet or complacent,
Giulio Rivera said.
Prior molestation allegation

But the allegations of abuse extend beyond physical violence.
According to a 2006 affidavit, Angel Rivera was arrested after a
foster child accused him of molesting her and taking lewd
photographs using a Polaroid camera.

The victim — whose name and age were redacted, along with the
names of witnesses and relatives — was redacted, said Angel
Rivera would repeatedly take her to his auto shop between March
and May 2005 and ask her to take off her clothes so he could
touch her breasts. The victim told authorities the two didn’t
have intercourse.

She didn’t report the incidents to the Department of Children
and Families until about a year later because she said Angel
Rivera threatened to “kill her and her family if she told
anyone," police said.

The victim’s mother told police she placed the child under the
Riveras’ care during an undisclosed Department of Children and
Families investigation because Angel Rivera was a mechanic she
trusted and "a good man due to him being a church member,”
according to the affidavit.

The charges were also dropped in that case, though a permanent
injunction prohibiting contact with the girl was issued against
him. In 2007, he was accused and later acquitted of violating
the order.

There are no court records indicating other instances of sexual
abuse, but an Osceola County Sheriff’s Office calls-for-service
log lists two calls — one in 1997 and another in 2001 — in
reference to sexual battery, in which Angel Rivera was labeled
the suspect.

Giulio Rivera became estranged from the family, only
occasionally getting in touch with them in an effort to
reconcile. In summer 2016, he said he met Montalvo and her son
for the first time and felt the family’s dynamic was changing
for the better. But he lost touch with them again after that.
News of his relatives being arrested in connection to Montalvo’s
murder didn’t reach him until a cousin sent him links to online
news stories about the case.

He described Montalvo as kind and fun-loving and his nephew as a
happy baby.

“I want him to know that he has an uncle ... that loves and
adores him, and remembers him from when he was a baby wearing
Pampers,” Giulio Rivera said. “He was always this goofy little
kid."


Church activities

Even as Angel Rivera’s rap sheet was growing, he became involved
in Cornerstone Family Church in St. Cloud, posting online about
his role in church ministries and mission trips to Ecuador to
deliver food and medicine and help build parishes.

Social media photos seem to show highlights of these trips:
beaming congregants, Ecuadorian children posing with toys, and,
in one photo, Angel Rivera administering what appears to be a
vaccine to a woman.

In photos posted on Jan. 27, 2013, Angel Rivera talked about his
love for helping those in need and asked friends to donate to
future trips.

“We treated over 800 people for medical problems. We also
delivered food to almost 1,000 families. And the clothes we took
for the kids was like a dream come true for them," he wrote.

Business records show he and Wanda Rivera took positions in two
nonprofits — Global Mission Outreach and Union Baptist of Latin
America — with the stated goal of raising money and supplies for
communities locally and overseas. A third organization, Iglesia
Bautista Israel, was created in 2016 as part of an expansion of
a church in Ecuador but was inactive as of 2017.

Union Baptist of Latin America and Iglesia Bautista Israel both
name among their officers Guayaquil-based Pastor Parrish Jácome
and his wife, Toyi Jácome, but it’s unclear the extent of their
relationship with the Rivera family and the effectiveness of the
organizations.

Iglesia Bautista Israel spokesman Julio Santoro declined to make
Jácome available for an interview. But a Nov. 8 filing on behalf
of Union of Latin American Baptists removed Angel and Wanda
Rivera as vice president and treasurer, respectively, and
changed its address from a construction shed on the Riveras’
Hixon Avenue property to a post office box in Palm Beach County.

Stateside, the Riveras were heavily involved at Cornerstone,
despite its patriarch’s occasional run-ins with the law. Two
former congregants of Cornerstone, including Giulio Rivera, said
Angel Rivera and Wanda Rivera held positions at the church,
including leading children’s programs.

Rivera called himself a missionary affiliated with the church
when he wrote a letter to a judge in 2007, asking to push back a
court date regarding his arrest for violating the injunction
issued following his child molestation case so he could take
part in an 11-day mission trip out of the country.

“I will also be attending a service in a new church that we just
built,” he wrote.
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In a statement, the church denied that Angel Rivera had ever
worked for the church or gone on its mission trips, “contrary to
his claim.” Blackwell, the church’s senior pastor and St. Cloud
mayor, declined interview requests.

“Over the last twelve years, Mr. Rivera has not participated in
any mission trip sponsored by our church,” said the statement,
which was sent by the church’s executive administrative
assistant, Donna Phillips, in response to questions from the
Sentinel. “He has never served on our staff, and he is not a
missionary for Cornerstone.”



After this story was published online, a tipster flagged a
sermon posted to the church’s YouTube page in October 2013 which
contradicts the church’s statement. In the video, Blackwell
calls Angel Rivera to the lectern to talk about his mission
trips to Ecuador. Rivera talks for nearly five minutes about
building and maintaining a church in Guayaquil and delivering
medicine, clothing and other supplies at a jail for women in the
city.

Blackwell says he personally visited that church shortly after
it was built.

“I pray for Angel and I pray for the team that will be going
back later next year, and we just thank you for this opportunity
to be a part of what you’re doing in a very small but very needy
part of your world,” Blackwell said in a prayer, before calling
Angel Rivera “brother” and embracing him.

Cornerstone Family Church did not immediately respond to a
follow-up request for comment.


‘It’s broken my heart’

In its statement, the church said it would “continue to hope and
pray that all the families and individuals who are grieving and
hurting will find a way to heal.”

“Our entire church community is shocked and deeply saddened by
these tragic events,” the church said. “We are doing what
churches do — seeking to provide comfort and support.”

Though he wouldn’t grant an interview on the subject, Blackwell
addressed the case in a videotaped sermon that was posted online
Nov. 3 by Cornerstone.

In it, Blackwell asked the congregation to participate in a
“special word of prayer" for Montalvo’s family and others
affected by her tragic death. In the prayer, Blackwell
acknowledges that some people attending the service personally
knew the Montalvo and Rivera families.
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“Let’s just stop right now and pray for that family, and pray
for all of the families that have been impacted on both sides of
the issue,” he said. “I know that it’s broken my heart, as I’m
sure it has impacted many of you who had personal relationships
with these individuals.

“God, may this not rip our community apart, certainly not rip
our church apart,” he prayed.

Far from from St. Cloud and his former church, Giulio Rivera
offered up his own prayer for the sister-in-law he barely knew
and the nephew whose life would never be the same.

“If I can give my life so that she can live — right now, if God
came down and said, ‘I will give you one wish,’ I’d be dead
right here on the floor right now, so my little nephew doesn’t
have to grow up with the pain I did, of never having a mother,"
he said.

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