Delaware County Daily Times - Sept 13, 2000 Article

Rivera defense wants to exclude testimony

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Wednesday, September 13, 2000

Author: MATT ZAGER ; Of the Times Staff

MEDIA COURTHOUSE -- In a hearing where defense attorney G. Guy Smith was trying to prevent people from testifying against Robert Rivera , it was the defendant who spoke up in court yesterday.

Rivera , accused of kidnapping and killing his 20-month-old daughter Katelyn , was waiting for the judge to re-enter after a recess when he shouted at a television reporter in the back row of the courtroom.

"The only offer they made me was 30 to 60 years," said Rivera . "That's no deal. I'm tired of people asking ‘Why don't you give her back? Why don't you give her back?"

He then complained he was getting dirty looks from a man in the front of the court. Rivera said either the man leaves or he leaves.

When the man did not move, Rivera stood up, thrust his arms behind him and waited for deputies to handcuff him and lead him out of court.

Rivera returned to court a short while later.

Attorney Smith is trying to keep some people from ever testifying before a jury. Among them are police, prison inmates, a Daily Times reporter and others who talked to Rivera in the days and months after he allegedly kidnapped his daughter. Katelyn hasn't been seen since Rivera forcibly took her from a babysitter's home Aug. 10, 1999.

Rivera was arrested the next day. If convicted of murdering his daughter, he could face the death penalty.

Smith contends that inmates, reporters and others who spoke to Rivera were acting on behalf of county investigators -- and therefore a lawyer should have been present. And before anyone talked to him, Rivera should have been read his rights to remain silent and have an attorney represent him.

"(These conversations) were all conducted without benefit of counsel, without benefit of Miranda warnings and in deliberate and intentional violation of the defendant's constitutional rights," Smith said.

County detectives questioned Rivera without a lawyer while transporting him from prison to court, the defense motion says.

Yesterday, Smith questioned five witnesses, including two Upper Chichester police officers, a prison counselor and Daily Times reporter Rose Quinn.

In a prison interview with Quinn, Rivera said: "only me and God know where Katelyn is."

Prison counselor Steven Cristinzio testified he told county detectives about statements Rivera made to him at the Delaware County prison in August 1999.

Cristinzio said he wasn't not asked by CID detectives to find out information from Rivera . The counselor said he volunteered the information to police.

Cristinzio said Rivera told him that a "couple had his baby a lot longer than what he thought and that he felt they may have killed the baby."

When first arrested, Rivera said he had taken Katelyn to Longwood Gardens and given her to a couple of strangers in the gift shop, according to Cheryl Lancianese, a welfare case worker who spoke with Rivera at the Media police barracks after his arrest. Katelyn was last seen about 7 p.m. Aug. 10. Rivera stopped for gas on Baltimore Pike in Chadds Ford and the attendant remembers seeing the baby in Rivera 's car. Two hours later, Rivera returned to the same gas station and traded a watch for gasoline. The attendant said the toddler was no longer with Rivera .

Later, police found a tiny sock and sneaker on a Delaware highway. Jennifer Helton, Katelyn 's mother, identified the items as belonging to her daughter Katelyn .

Helton was in court yesterday, surrounded by her family.

Smith has asked for a change in venue, citing pre-trial publicity and said finding an impartial jury will be impossible in Delaware County. The defense attorney wants the judge to move the trial to a different county.

Smith has also asked for a psychiatric evaluation of his client. The pre-trial hearing is set to continue today and is expected to last much of the week. No trial date has been set in the case.