Delaware County Daily Times - Jan 17, 2002 Article

Witnesses describe Katelyn 's final hours

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Thursday, January 17, 2002

Author: MARLENE DiGIACOMO ; mdigiacomo@delcotimes.com

MEDIA COURTHOUSE -- Jane Baxter yesterday fingered a child's sneaker with three sequins and identified it as one of a pair she had purchased for 20-month-old Katelyn Selena Rivera -Helton two weeks before the child was allegedly kidnapped and killed by her father Aug. 10, 1999.

That size 4 sneaker was found by authorities on a highway near the Delaware-Pennsylvania border several months after the child's disappearance.

Also yesterday, Thomas Whittaker identified a spade shovel that turned up missing after Rivera paid a surprise visit about 10 p.m. Aug. 10, 1999, to his Elkton, Md., home. That shovel was later found by police at a construction site.

"This here is my father's spade shovel that I inherited," said Whittaker. He told the jury that the handle bore a distinctive blue paint marking. "My father spray paints all of his shovels with blue paint," said the witness.

The shovel, sneaker and a yellow sock are among the evidence that Assistant District Attorney John F.X. Reilly is using to try to prove that Robert Rivera killed his daughter, whose body has never been found.

An inmate who led police to the three items is expected to testify today that he was given that information by Rivera during prison chats and that Rivera also admitted he suffocated his daughter and buried her body.

Rivera , 35, of Upper Chichester, is on trial on first-degree murder charges in the jury trial presided over by Judge Charles C. Keeler. Rivera is facing a possible death penalty in the killing.

Among yesterday's witnesses was the child's day care provider, Sheila Clendening, who told the jury Rivera , broke down a door on her Upper Chichester home and "scooped" up his daughter that morning.

As he left, she said she heard Katelyn 's head hit the doorjamb. She said she did not see it, but heard Rivera exclaim: "Oh, her head."

Also yesterday John McCabe, a student who was working as a gas station attendant at a Sunoco Station in Chadds Ford that day and is the last known person to see Katelyn alive, took the stand.

McCabe testified that Rivera rolled in about 7:15 p.m. and asked for $2 worth of gas. He said he saw a young child on the front seat, which was in a reclining position. "She was on her hands and knees crawling around the passenger seat," he said.

McCabe testified Rivera had a $1 bill and had to search around in the car for four quarters to pay the tab. On cross-examination by defense attorney G. Guy Smith, McCabe said the child wasn't crying and he saw no injuries on her.

He said two hours later Rivera returned -- this time without the child -- and went directly to the bathroom. When he came out, he motioned to McCabe and related a story about being out of gas and out of money and that his wife was home waiting for him.

Rivera turned over a watch to hold as collateral for $10 worth of gas. "He shook my hand and said, ‘Thanks for doing this.' He said his name was Rob. The watch was a gift from his wife and had sentimental value," said McCabe.

That day Rivera was driving the car belonging to Michele Lupi, who had begun dating him two weeks before. She testified she agreed to lend him her car only for a few hours that day but he kept it until he was arrested the next day.

Lupi testified that he was supposed to meet her for lunch on Aug. 10, 1999, and return the car. However, he didn't return until 5:20 p.m. When she went out, he had Katelyn in the car on the front seat.

"He said ‘Get the ---- in the car,'" Lupi said. She climbed in the back, but was concerned because the child was in the front seat. "She was a baby. She should have been in the back seat where she would have been safe," Lupi testified.

She said Rivera began driving from Essington, where Lupi worked, heading down I-95 toward Delaware doing between 75 and 80 miles an hour with his daughter belted in the front seat. "He was weaving in out of traffic," Lupi said. When she complained, Rivera told her to "shut up."

At one point, he called Helton and made arrangements to meet her at a Kmart, said Lupi. But instead of stopping there, he passed right by it. She said the next thing she knew they were outside Helton's house and he was yelling for her to come out.

He kept saying, "Come out and get Katelyn . She (Helton) would come to the screen door and say, ‘Hold on.'"

Lupi said that he became afraid because he knew Helton was calling the police. Lupi also protested because she didn't want to get involved. She told him to get her out of there. He dropped her off a couple of blocks away, stating, "You're getting on my nerves. Get out. I'm taking Katelyn home."

He never did.

On cross examination by Smith, Lupi said that several times before Aug. 10, she was with Rivera when he would stop at a pay phone about 9 p.m. and call home so that he could talk to Katelyn before she went to bed.

"I heard him say, ‘Goodnight, baby. I love you,'" she testified.

Thomas Whittaker had also testified that when he lived in Upper Chichester, Katelyn was his daughter's "first friend."

He said his child will turn 4 in May. Katelyn would have celebrated her fourth birthday on Dec. 12.