The attorney for Christopher Otero-Rivera, the man accused of murdering estranged wife Nicole Montalvo in October 2019, has filed a series of motions in his defense, asking that certain evidence from the crime scene be suppressed and that his second-degree murder trial be moved away from Osceola County.
Defense attorney Migdalia Perez filed the motions over the weekend. They cover evidence the defense said was taken from the Hixon Avenue home Otero-Rivera shared with father Angel Rivera and mother Wanda Rivera, who have also been charged in connection with Montalvo’s murder.
The motion says some of the evidence was discovered during unlawful execution of the search warrant. Also, photos of the dismembered body should not be shown to any jury, since they are “gruesome and horrific in nature” and would be “extremely inflammatory and prejudicial to the defendant while the value in admitting the photographs would be slight.”
According to court documents, another motion asks for Rivera’s upcoming trial to be moved from Osceola County to either Hillsborough, Broward or Palm Beach county. The motion noted “the Osceola community’s involvement in this case and its hostility towards Otero-Rivera create an environment in which it would be difficult for a juror to render a verdict based solely on the evidence presented at trial.” Moving the trial elsewhere in the state, the motion reads, “would help protect the defendant’s right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
Otero-Rivera’s trial, according to court documents, is scheduled to begin June 8.
