Delaware County Daily Times - Jan 18, 2002 Article

Snitch admits profit motive

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Friday, January 18, 2002

Author: MARLENE DiGIACOMO ; mdigiacomo@delcotimes.com

MEDIA COURTHOUSE -- William Lively admitted yesterday he fabricated stories and even faked documents while in Delaware County's prison in an effort to convince accused baby-killer Robert Rivera he could be trusted -- to get a confession and reap a possible reward in the high-profile case.

Lively said Rivera finally told him he suffocated his baby, buried her body and tossed her clothes on a Delaware highway. "He ( Rivera ) started crying. He said the baby was dead. He suffocated her. He buried her in a round hole filled with sticks, rocks and dirt," said the witness.

Rivera , 35, of Upper Chichester is on trial on charges he kidnapped and killed his 20-month-old daughter, Katelyn Selena Rivera -Helton, after snatching her from her day care provider's home on the morning of Aug. 10, 1999. Her body has not been found. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

The demonstrative Lively, whose arms flailed and who constantly looked away from the microphone and spoke directly to the jury, could barely be heard at times in the courtroom. Assistant District Attorney John F.X. Reilly repeatedly asked the witness to speak louder.

Lively testified that because of his subterfuge with Rivera , he was able to obtain information that led authorities to the discovery of a shoe and sock worn by the child the day she disappeared, as well as a shovel he said was used to bury her body.

The yellow sock and size 4 shoe were found by police on a highway at the Pennsylvania-Delaware line. The shovel was discovered at a Maryland construction site.

The shovel, which had no fingerprints or other evidence on it, was identified earlier in the trial as the one stolen from Thomas Whittaker's home in Maryland. He said that after Rivera made a surprise visit to the Whittaker home on the night Katelyn vanished, the shovel was missing.

Whittaker said he "inherited" the shovel from his father, who marked such tools with distinctive blue paint so he knew which was his. Whittaker, who had been a neighbor of Rivera 's, said he was shocked to see him that night and that Katelyn , who had been his daughter's "first friend," was not with him.

Lively admitted he was interested in possible reward money and help to lessen his sentence for assorted crimes such as terroristic threats and receiving stolen property. He said he has not received any reward but that his cooperation will be mentioned to the judge when he is sentenced in March.

The witness also quoted Rivera as saying he first removed the baby's clothing to hasten the decomposition of her body. However, in a later chat with Rivera , he said he was told the girl was wearing a T-shirt that he received as a gift with a comical picture of a man engrossed in a football game while feeding a bottle to a dog while a baby was eating at the dog's dish.

Also yesterday witnesses including police, a Daily Times reporter and family members testified about how they asked Rivera over and over again during the ensuing months to tell what happened to his daughter – all to no avail.

Upper Chichester Police Detective James Reardon said that after Rivera was arrested he made statements about giving Katelyn to a female he knew who had lost a child, but he would not give an address. Rivera also said he gave her to a couple he met at Longwood Gardens, according to testimony.

Reardon said at one point, he showed Rivera a picture of his daughter, and the defendant "got very upset" and began crying. "Take that away. I don't want to see that," he quoted Rivera as saying.

Reardon told the jury that Rivera first wanted to meet with Jennifer Helton, the baby's mother, and then he said he would cooperate. However, after she came to the station and spent about 80 minutes with the defendant, he still refused to give information about Katelyn 's whereabouts.

"He ( Rivera ) told me I'm not telling you where she is," Reardon said.

"I'm not going to tell you where she is. I will take it to my grave," Rivera told him.

Daily Times Staff Writer Rose Quinn said that Rivera sent several letters to the newspaper insisting that he was the "only one" who knew where Katelyn was. In a subsequent Oct. 19, 1999, jailhouse interview, he was quoted as telling her: "Only me and God know where Katelyn is."

Katelyn 's grandmother, Olga Helton, in a faltering voice, said that Katelyn was fussing on the morning she disappeared and didn't want to get out of bed that day.

Looking at a picture of the child, the grandmother lowered her eyes and said, "That's Katie."

She told a crowded courtroom that she and the child's mother helped dress Katelyn .

They put the yellow socks and shoes with the three sequins on Katelyn and brought her to her day care provider's home in Upper Chichester. That was the last time they saw her.

The grandmother said the next day, after Katelyn was snatched, Rivera called and she answered the phone. She testified she pleaded with him to bring his daughter home. "Give yourself up and bring Katie back," she said she told him. He told her he had given the baby away.

"He said, ‘I can't bring Katie back. I don't have her any more.'"