Nicole Montalvo’s husband, father-in-law guilty of her murder, mutilation in gruesome death

After just 90 minutes, a jury found the estranged husband and father-in-law of St. Cloud woman Nicole Montalvo guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday for killing and dismembering her.

The six-member jury began deliberating close to 4:30 p.m. at the Osceola County Courthouse and rendered a verdict around 6 p.m.

Montalvo’s estranged husband, Christopher Otero-Rivera, and father-in-law, Angel Luis Rivera, were charged with second-degree murder, abuse of a body and evidence tampering in her death.

Prosecutors say both men wanted Montalvo to “disappear” so they could get custody of the couple’s shared son.

Life was looking up for Nicole Montalvo before she suddenly disappeared on Oct. 21, 2019.

Prosecutors said the St. Cloud woman was “happy” after getting a new apartment to share with her 8-year-old son, Elijah, and planned to take him to a pumpkin patch. She was last seen alive dropping off her child at the family home of her estranged husband, Christopher Otero-Rivera.

“As she drove out to the Rivera residence with the love of her life, her son Elijah, the day seemed bright,” Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams told jurors Wednesday during closing statements. “She didn’t know that the drive would result in her mangled and mutilated body ending up there.”

Otero-Rivera’s attorney, Migdalia Perez, told jurors that “not one” piece of evidence directly linked Montalvo’s killing to her estranged husband during closing statements.

“The compelling evidence is on Angel Rivera,” she said.

“Mr. Otero-Rivera is not guilty,” she added. “… You know what he’s guilty of? Being gullible, vulnerable and manipulated by the master of the house.”

Angel Rivera’s attorney, though, blamed Otero-Rivera, arguing the estranged husband had the most to gain.

“Christopher Otero-Rivera stood to gain substantially because he’s the father of the child,” he said. “If she’s dead, he gets custody all to himself.”

A year before she went missing, Otero-Rivera was accused of abducting and brutally beating his wife in October 2018, court records show. While he was jailed, Montalvo filed for divorce in February 2019, seeking an end to their relationship after years of alleged abuse.

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Otero-Rivera talked often about wanting to hurt his estranged wife and taking custody of their shared son, but after she petitioned to end their marriage, he became more adamant about wanting to kill her, his former jail pod mates testified.

Angel Rivera was also upset at Montalvo for not allowing him to see his grandchild for several months while Otero-Rivera was incarcerated, witnesses said.

Dustin Gonzalez, Otero-Rivera’s former cellmate, said the father and son helped get him out of jail in exchange for planting drugs on Montalvo. Gonzalez told jurors that Angel Rivera offered him money twice to make Montalvo “disappear.”

A neighbor of the family testified that Angel Rivera also offered him $10,000 to kill his daughter-in-law during the summer of 2019.

Otero-Rivera pleaded to lesser offenses and was sentenced to a short jail term and probation. He wasn’t allowed contact with Montalvo, but his parents were heavily involved in taking care of the couple’s son by October 2019.

After she disappeared, Angel Rivera told law enforcement that his daughter-in-law had sent him a text asking him and his wife, Wanda Rivera, to take care of the child for a few days.

Detectives, though, suspected the text was sent by someone other than Montalvo because she hadn’t told anyone she was leaving.

After a search, investigators found Montalvo’s remains on the Hixon Avenue property and another property belonging to the Riveras on Henry J Avenue.

She had been burned, cut into pieces and buried, according to the medical examiner. A forensic anthropologist testified that Montalvo’s dismembering involved hacking and cutting body parts with different tools, including a powered blade, as well as physically breaking bones.

Location data from an ankle monitor on Otero-Rivera showed he was near a site where Montalvo’s remains were buried and where her car was abandoned on Big Sky Boulevard. GPS data from a rented excavator showed it was near burial sites on both properties.

On the excavator, investigators found two water bottles with DNA that matched Angel Rivera, witnesses testified.

Otero-Rivera’s defense attorneys, though, blamed his father for Montalvo’s killing and said Angel Rivera treated the couple’s son like a “possession.”

Montalvo’s blood was only found on an orange cart on the property, while none of the tools allegedly used in the dismemberment had Montalvo’s DNA on them, attorneys argued.

But Otero-Rivera had more to gain in killing Montalvo, according to his father’s attorney, Frank Bankowitz.

“He stood to lose his child,” the attorney said. “He had a divorce pending, and he became very upset … when he found out Nicole had a boyfriend.”

mcordeiro@orlandosentinel.com