Delaware County Daily Times - Sept 15, 2000 Article #2

Prison pal says Rivera admitted killing baby

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Friday, September 15, 2000

Author: MATT ZAGER ; Of the Times Staff

MEDIA COURTHOUSE -- A fellow inmate of Robert Rivera who led police to key evidence against the accused murderer yesterday said Rivera confessed to suffocating his daughter, Katelyn Selena Rivera -Helton.

William Lively said Rivera told him in prison between August and September of 1999 that he suffocated Katelyn and buried her body.

However, Lively didn't give any details of the alleged murder after he looked at Rivera yesterday at a pre-trial hearing and made the accusation.

The testimony came as the hearing continues to determine what testimony will be allowed at Rivera 's trial. The 34-year-old defendant faces the death penalty if convicted of the kidnapping and murder.

Lively led police to a tiny sock and shoe belonging to Katelyn just 21 days after Rivera allegedly abducted the 20-month-old toddler from her day care provider's home on Aug. 10, 1999.

Yesterday, Lively also confessed to plotting to trick Rivera into telling him where Katelyn was. Lively gave Rivera a letter in prison with the forged signature of an attorney guaranteeing him a maximum four-year sentence if he told of Katelyn 's whereabouts. But Lively said he had typed the entire letter and forged the signature of attorney Lawrence Foti, who was Lively's lawyer.

The letter said the District Attorney's office had agreed to the deal and also promised a maximum of $5,000 bail if Rivera appeared in a live interview. He would also have to give 20 percent of rewards and money from interviews to Foti, the letter said.

"I cannot and will not meet face to face with you, for what we are trying to complete would not be legal, and would cost me and the D.A.'s office dearly," the forged letter read.

Defense attorney G. Guy Smith yesterday hammered Lively about his motivation for giving detectives information about Rivera .

Lively said the reason wasn't that he wanted to get out of prison early, but "for reward money" at first and later because he thought it was wrong that Rivera had killed Katelyn .

There was "no deal" made with the District Attorney's office for an early release, Lively's attorney Foti said in a phone interview yesterday.

Lively, 33, of the Highland Park section of Upper Darby, was awaiting a hearing on charges that he stole tools from his neighbors when he was in prison with Rivera .

Last May, Lively pleaded guilty to nine counts of receiving stolen property and three counts of making terroristic threats. The plea agreement signed by Lively postpones his sentencing until he is finished cooperating in the Rivera case. It also said his "cooperation and testimony is vital to the investigation."

Lively was released on bail last December.

Rivera and Lively met in prison on Aug. 11, 1999, the day Rivera was arrested, Lively said.

He said the men would have long conversations alone, play cards and that he would read Rivera court documents and newspaper stories about the case. Rivera has very poor reading skills, he said.

When Lively read him a police affidavit that said Katelyn 's head hit a door jamb while he was carrying her away from the babysitter's house on Aug. 10, 1999, Rivera got mad, insisting that it was his hand that hit the jamb, Lively said.

Lively first contacted county Criminal Investigations Division Detective Lt. David Peifer on Aug. 17 and then on Aug. 19, 1999, with information about Rivera .

Peifer testified on Wednesday that he brought Lively to CID headquarters, and after listening to the information which had been publicized in the news, told Lively that he was "full of crap."

"I didn't want to deal with him anymore, he wasn't telling the truth," Peifer said on Wednesday.

Then, on Aug. 31, 1999, Peifer was searching a property in Elkton, Md., where Rivera had stayed when Lively contacted him again, Peifer testified Wednesday. Lively said Rivera had thrown Katelyn 's clothes out the window of his car while traveling South on Route 202 in Delaware. Rivera thought an unclothed body would decompose faster, Lively said.

The yellow sock and sneaker, decorated with three sequins, belonged to Katelyn , said her mother, Jennifer Helton of Upper Chichester.

Lively also faxed Peifer a precise map drawn by Rivera of the property in Maryland that he was searching that day. The map had written directions that showed a fire pit where Lively said the body was buried.

Investigators searched the property again a week later with another map drawn by Rivera , but Katelyn 's body has never been found.