David J. Rivera must remain behind state prison bars for more than two decades for committing sex-related crimes against children, a three-judge state Superior Court panel has ruled.
In a 10-page opinion filed May 17, the panel ruled Rivera, 23, of Minersville, was properly sentenced and a judge did not err when she imposed consecutive sentences for certain crimes.
“The charges against (Rivera) did not arise from a single criminal act,” President Judge Emeritus Correale F. Stevens wrote in the panel’s opinion.
As a result, Rivera will serve 22 to 44 years in a state correctional institution, plus an additional five years on probation, the total sentence that county Judge Jacqueline L. Russell imposed on him on July 20, 2015. Russell also ruled Rivera, who is serving his sentence at SCI/Huntingdon, is a sexually violent predator and must be subject to lifetime Megan’s Law sanctions once he is released from prison.
In a one-day trial over which Russell presided, a jury of eight men and four women deliberated about four hours on April 6, 2015, before finding Rivera guilty of one count of rape and two counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of children and indecent exposure. The jury also found Rivera not guilty of four additional counts of rape, two additional counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and two counts of aggravated indecent assault.
Mahanoy City police charged Rivera, who did not testify or offer any other evidence on his behalf during the trial, with committing sexual acts against the children, a boy and a girl, starting on Jan. 1, 2011, and continuing until February 2014. Both children testified during the trial.
Stevens wrote in the opinion that Russell’s imposition of consecutive sentences for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of minors did not violate state law for two reasons.
First, he wrote, the crimes did not arise from the same criminal act. The crimes occurred in Mahanoy City, Minersville and Pottsville, and the jury could reasonably conclude that they involved separate actions, according to Stevens.
Second, he wrote, each crime requires proof of at least one element not required by the others. While they might be similar, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors each demands proof of at least one factor the others do not, thereby barring their merger under state law, according to Stevens.
Since the crimes do not merge, Russell had both the right and the duty to impose separate sentences for them, Stevens wrote.
Stevens also wrote that Rivera abandoned his claim that the evidence was insufficient to convict him.
Judges Alice Beck Dubow and Sallie Updyke Mundy, the other panel members, joined in Stevens’ opinion.