Husband, his father charged in wife’s death
Vigil held for Osceola woman; records show allegations of abuse
The beach at St. Cloud’s Lakefront Park was aglow with candlelight Monday night as the community remembered Nicole Montalvo, a woman many remembered as a “special, special person.”
While music played from a nearby speaker, Montalvo’s friends and St. Cloud locals alike paid their respects by lighting candles and placing them in front of an altar of flowers and photos of Montalvo. Her family, who requested privacy during the vigil, hugged and asked the crowd to join voices in an “Our Father” — the Lord’s Prayer — to “send her off into the light.”
“I know that now her family knows how much she was loved and how much she’s gonna be missed, and that people in the community do care,” said Susan Haught, a St. Cloud resident.
Montalvo, 33, was reported missing last week after she didn’t arrive to pick up her 8-year-old son from school. Her body was found at a property on Hixon Avenue owned by the parents of her husband and the father of her child, Christopher Otero-Rivera.
Now, Otero-Rivera, 31, and his father Angel Luis Rivera, 63, are being held without bond at the Osceola County Jail on charges of first-degree murder.
Few details have been released about the circumstances of Montalvo’s killing. But court records show Montalvo had repeatedly sought help from law enforcement and the courts, describing episodes of escalating abuse by her husband in the years before her slaying.
‘He gets aggressive’:
Court records document a history of abuse allegations by Montalvo against her husband, including an incident that led to his arrest on felony charges a year ago. Photos filed alongside some court papers showed Montalvo with visible bruises. In at least one, she wore a neck brace.
Montalvo first filed for a restraining order against Otero-Rivera in June 2016, writing in a petition that he had struck her after she returned home with their then-5-year-old son.
“I came home [and] my husband was drinking. He … got mad over something dumb then got in my face, smacked me across [my] face,” she wrote. “I started to bleed.”
She said Otero-Rivera dragged her by her hair toward their bedroom.
Montalvo wrote that they had fought before “and he gets aggressive,” but “this time was the worst.”
“This isn’t the first time it happen[ed] but this is the worst time,” she wrote.
She also indicated that Otero-Rivera had in the past
been hospitalized under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows the involuntary commitment of people believed to be a danger to themselves or others.
On Oct. 3, 2018, Montalvo told Osceola County sheriff ’s investigators that she received a text from Otero-Rivera, from whom she was separated, telling her his truck’s battery was dead and he needed a ride. She met him at a Walmart in St. Cloud and they left together in her four-door Saturn.
Montalvo said she followed Otero-Rivera’s direction as he guided them to an isolated area of Southport Road. Once there, a vehicle pulled up.
A woman, whom Montalvo recognized as Toni Rocker, then got out of the other vehicle and “ripped” Montalvo from her Saturn, throwing her to the ground and tearing her shirt, according to an affidavit. Then, she said Otero-Rivera climbed on top of her while Rocker tried to stuff a piece of cloth in her mouth.
Otero-Rivera slapped Montalvo repeatedly “because he didn’t like that Nicole was talking to a friend via text and for taking his son,” the affidavit said.
Then, he climbed off of her and started looking through her phone — before becoming upset and throwing her back to the ground by her hair, according to the affidavit. Montalvo said OteroRivera then got back on top of her and tried to break her neck, before letting her go.
Rocker pulled a knife and told Montalvo she would slit her throat if she told anyone what had happened, the affidavit said.
Otero-Rivera then had Montalvo drive him to a RaceTrac gas station on Pleasant Hill Road, she said.
“While at the gas station Christopher told Nicole, that she was to tell her mother and father that some black guys jumped her at a red light,” the affidavit said. “Christopher told Nicole that if she called the police or told anyone the truth, that he and Toni would ‘come after’ [her] and she would be ‘killed.’”
She dropped him off at the Friendly Village Inn on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway. When she got home, Montalvo said she realized
she was missing about $40, a debit card, a credit card and an Instant card.
While deputies were interviewing Montalvo, St. Cloud police found Rocker and Otero-Rivera together in a car around the corner from Montalvo’s home, the affidavit said. Montalvo’s belongings were found inside the vehicle and both Rocker and Otero-Rivera were arrested.
Montalvo would later write in a court filing that she believed her husband and Rocker had been having an affair. Rocker is currently in the Osceola County Jail, accused of violating probation.
Plea led to probation: Otero-Rivera in July pleaded no contest to hindering a witness’ ability to communicate with law enforcement, unlawful possession of a credit or debit card and battery. Charges of kidnapping, robbery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon were dropped in the deal.
He was sentenced to a short stint in jail, followed by two years of supervised probation.
Rocker, 31, opted to go to trial on charges including kidnapping, robbery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. She was acquitted by a jury in April.
As part of his probation, Otero-Rivera was prohibited from having contact with Montalvo except through a parenting app. He was also prohibited from having any weapons or firearms.
In a letter to Circuit Judge Wayne Wooten in late July, Montalvo asked to ease the communication restrictions between herself and OteroRivera. She wrote that it had been “hard to communicate” with him about their son under the terms of OteroRivera’s probation.
She asked to lift the injunctions preventing them from having contact.
“We have mutual parties willing to help keep the peace,” she wrote, adding that she was just trying to do what’s right for her son. “He is my main concern and no matter what at the end of the day Chris is his dad. Chris was a good dad we just can’t be together.”