Prosecutors still don’t know how St. Cloud’s Montalvo was killed
Prosecutors say they still don’t know how or when Nicole Montalvo was killed, despite having indicted her estranged husband last week for murder in the St. Cloud mother’s death.
The admission comes more than a month after Gov. Ron DeSantis reassigned the case away from Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala, who argued Osceola Sheriff Russ Gibson had rushed to arrest Montalvo’s husband Christopher Otero-Rivera and father-in-law Angel Rivera on first-degree murder charges before determining who killed and dismembered her in October.
An attorney for OteroRivera, who is now charged with second-degree murder, abuse of a dead body and evidence tampering, asked prosecutors Sunday to provide details of the alleged offense, including a place, date, time and any material facts, court show.
Ocala-based State Attorney Brad King, who was reassigned the case by DeSantis, responded Monday, writing his office could not provide specifics.
“The State of Florida does not know the means or method by which the victim was killed because her body was burned, cut into pieces and buried on the property listed above and another piece of property owned by members of [Otero-Rivera’s] family,” King wrote. “Not all of the body was recovered. The Medical Examiner has ruled the death a homicide.
King said the murder happened somewhere on the Rivera family’s property on Hixon Avenue in St. Cloud but added the exact date of the offense is “unknown.” The 33-year-old went missing Oct. 21 after dropping off her 8-year-old son at the Riveras’ home.
“The State can prove records that the victim was alive on October 21, 2019 at approximately 4:00 pm when she was seen on video paying her rent at Summer Cove Apartments,” King wrote. “The first parts of her body were discovered on Oct. 24, 2019 in the late afternoon.”
The acrimonious dispute between Ayala and Gibson over whether there was enough evidence to charge Otero-Rivera and his father became public after the Ayala’s office missed a November deadline to indict the pair for first-degree murder.
Gibson called on the governor to remove Ayala from the Montalvo case, accusing her of hindering the investigation and blaming her reluctance to indict the pair on her opposition to the death penalty.
Ayala hit back, calling Gibson’s accusations “blatant lies” and said her office had repeatedly “encouraged and requested” additional investigation by the Sheriff’s Office. In a letter to DeSantis, Ayala accused Gibson of rushing the investigation into Montalvo’s killing to boost his re-election campaign.
Legal experts told the Orlando Sentinel prosecutors would have faced an uphill battle had they indicted Otero-Rivera and Rivera for first-degree murder, due to a lack of concrete evidence connecting one or both of them to Montalvo’s killing.
In arresting both men, deputies relied on testimony from Otero-Rivera’s brother, Nicholas Rivera, who told investigators that he had seen his family members with Montalvo’s bloodied corpse in their garage.
But a DNA report determined blood found on a garage floor at the Riveras’ home did not belong to Montalvo or her estranged husband, records show.