Convicted child killer Osvaldo Rivera, 36 asked for a retrial hoping he’d be convicted of lesser charges instead of murder
A New Jersey man who is serving an 82-year sentence for killing a six-year-old boy who was trying to save his sister from being attacked, has had his quest for a new trial denied by a state appeals court.
Osvaldo Rivera, 36, was convicted of 11 charges in 2014 at a trial in the killing of Dominick Andujar and raping the boy’s 12-year-old sister, Amber Andujar.
Rivera demanded a new trial, saying that the judge erred in instructing jurors of the degrees of the charges and that he could have been found guilty of lesser-included crimes, including manslaughter.
He argued, according to NJ.com Rivera argued that the use of the word ‘lesser’ resulted in the jurors considering his potential punishment when they decided to find him guilty of the most severe charges, instead of the most appropriate.
During his trial, his attorney asked jurors to convict Rivera of aggravated manslaughter instead of murder because he was intoxicated at the time and claimed he had been drunk.
Osvaldo Rivera is serving 82 years in jail for the killing of six-year-old Dominick Andujar (right)
The appeals court dismissed Rivera’s argument, stating that it was his own attorney who asked the judge to tell jurors about the degrees of the charges.
The judges also noted that case law dictates that a defendant cannot request a procedure or action at trial, and then object to it after the outcome was unfavorable to him or her.
Either way, Rivera was given an 82½-year mandatory minimum sentence and would have to survive to be 115 years old to be eligible for parole in 2096.
Rivera’s crimes are chilling. At around midnight on September 2, 2012 he broke into the Andujar family’s home in Camden and Amber as she slept on the couch.
Rivera, pictured here sobbing during his arraignment September 4, 2012, told police he was high when he broke into the Andujar family’s home in Camden and assaulted a 12-year-old girl
Rivera repeatedly sexually assaulted and slashed the girl with a butcher knife in a downstairs living room.
Her screams woke six-year-old Dominick – and he rushed to his sister’s aid.
The small boy fought with the attacker and managed to free his sister in the process.
Amber, who was bleeding after being slashed in the throat by Rivera, ran to a neighbor’s home to call for help.
But by the time police arrived on the scene, brave little Dominick was dead after having his throat slashed.
Little hero: Dominick had his throat slashed by Rivera as he rushed to protect his big sister, Amber (right) from her assailant
Their mother was not home at the time and they were in the care of their 14-year-old sister, the prosecutor’s office said at the time.
Rivera fled the house after killing Dominick, and his sister Amber was later seen running through the neighborhood, screaming for help while bleeding profusely from the throat.
Emergency responders said the cuts were so deep they could see Amber’s vocal cords.
She later helped officers locate her rapist by telling them he was known by the nickname ‘Popeye’ and lived in a Camden apartment.
Capture: Rivera was found hiding behind a mattress in a home in Camden after the attack
Police tracked him down to an apartment in the city and found him hiding between an upturned mattress and the wall.
According to investigators, during his questioning Rivera had revealed that he had smoked ‘wet,’ a combination of marijuana and PCP, prior to the killing.
The attacks shocked the community, with Camden County Police Chief J. Scott Thomson called Dominick ‘Camden’s littlest hero.’
In July 2014, a Camden jury found Osvaldo Rivera guilty of the murder of Dominick Andujar, as well as charges of attempted murder, aggravated sexual assault, burglary and weapons violations.
Defiant: Amber Andujar (left) survived despite having her throat cut so deeply that paramedics could see her vocal chords