Brother of accused killer takes plea deal on child porn charges
The brother of the estranged husband accused of killing St. Cloud mother Nicole Montalvo will face a decade in prison after accepting a deal on dozens of child pornography-related charges.
Along with 10 years behind bars, 29-year-old Nicholas Rivera will be on probation for 15 years after his release, according to an agreement with prosecutors signed by Rivera's attorney on Tuesday.
The deal would avoid a trial on 32 counts of possessing child pornography and other counts of using devices to send and receive the material, which could have led to decades in prison if convicted.
Rivera was arrested
in
November as Osceola County sheriff's deputies were investigating the death of 33-year-old Montalvo, who was reported missing late October after dropping off her child at her in-laws' Hixon Avenue home in St. Cloud. Investigators later found her dismembered remains buried on the property and at a vacant lot held under Rivera's name.
Montalvo's exhusband, Christopher Otero-Rivera, father-in-law Angel Rivera and mother-in-law Wanda Rivera were arrested in connection to the killing, with Otero-Rivera and Angel Rivera having been indicted by a grand jury for seconddegree murder, along with other charges.
Wanda Rivera was charged with being an accessory after the fact, tampering with evidence and lying to deputies.
The three are scheduled for trial on Aug. 28 after months of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nicholas Rivera was listed as a witness for the prosecution.
Shortly after beginning the investigation into the Montalvo killing, deputies tracked Nicholas Rivera to Georgia, where he was originally arrested on a warrant for eight counts of possessing child porn.
According to recorded interviews released as discovery, he told investigators he went to the garage shortly after Montalvo was killed, to find his brother and father standing over her lifeless body which was in a pool of blood.