Maryland man found guilty of Lehigh Acres double murder
A Maryland man has been found guilty of killing two people in a Lehigh Acres home during a burglary.
Roberto Perez Rivera, 38, was found guilty on Friday of two counts of second-degree murder with a firearm by a Lee County jury following a trial that started on Nov. 3, according to the State Attorney’s Office. He was also found guilty of first-degree burglary while armed (structure) and petit theft.
Assistant State Attorney Hamid Hunter, of the State Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit, prosecuted the case.
According to a State Attorney’s Office report, Rivera shot a man and woman to death in a Lehigh Acres home in 2019 while their 6-month-old child was in the home.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to the home on Oct. 27, 2019, following a 911 call from the woman’s relative, who had stopped by the house and found both victims deceased. The man and woman were both found dead in the master bedroom. The child was found alive behind a dresser.
Trial evidence showed Rivera had recently returned to Florida from his home in Baltimore, Maryland, and rented a car, the State Attorney’s Office said. After the murders, he attempted to trade the car in to the rental car company, claiming it was dirty, but the rental car company told him to clean the vehicle himself.
Rivera was spotted washing the car at an area car wash, as well as cleaning his clothes in an area laundromat, the State Attorney’s Office said.
He left Southwest Florida soon after the murders but was located in Las Vegas and taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Regional Task Force.
Rivera’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 8.