OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – The two men accused of killing a St. Cloud mother offered to pay a man’s bond in exchange for his help to “discredit” the kidnapping charges against her estranged husband and later offered more money to “make her disappear,” a recorded call with Osceola County Sheriff’s Office detectives show.
Christopher Otero-Rivera, 33, was arrested in October 2019 after Montalvo’s dismembered remained were found on his family’s property near St. Cloud. They were separated at the time of Montalvo’s disappearance. She was last seen Oct. 21, 2019 and reported missing after she failed to pick up their 8-year-old son from school.
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Otero-Rivera’s father, Angel Rivera, 64, was also arrested and charged in connection with Montalvo’s death. Rivera’s wife, Wanda Rivera, 60, has also been charged with accessory after the fact to murder and tampering with physical evidence.
On Oct. 4, 2018, Otero-Rivera was charged with kidnapping, battery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after Montalvo reported he and another woman, Toni Rocker, kidnapped and beat her, according to the Osceola County arrest report.
Otero-Rivera and Rocker pulled Montalvo from her vehicle and covered her mouth and nose, the report shows. Montalvo told deputies Otero-Rivera slapped her and held a knife to her throat and told her if she told anyone she would be “killed,” records show.
Otero-Rivera later used the victim’s card to pay for gas before letting her go, the report said. She told deputies she noticed later her debit cards and cash were also missing. Deputies who spoke to Montalvo said her face was swollen and red and she had dried blood on her mouth.
Otero-Rivera was still on probation stemming from that 2018 arrest when Montalvo was killed, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
While in jail on kidnapping charges, Otero-Rivera offered to pay his cellmate’s bail in exchange for help discrediting Montalvo, the cellmate told detectives in a recorded interview obtained by News 6. Otero-River’s father, Angel Rivera, paid $500 to bail the man out, but according to the cellmate, he took the money and ran, with no intention of helping Otero-Rivera or doing what he said, he told detectives.
“He wanted to discredit her, for I guess, her testimony,” the man told detectives, adding Otero-Rivera wanted the mother of his child to be “looked at like a junkie.”
The man told Otero-Rivera he would plant drugs in Montalvo’s car and then alert authorities in an attempt to discredit her. Upon posting bail, he also told Angel Rivera of his plan, according to the interview.
“He was ecstatic about this plan. He told me where she lived at and asked if I knew the color of her car,” the man told detectives of Rivera.
According to this witness, Angel Rivera offered to help him plant drugs in Montalvo’s car by getting keys to her car and later asked the man to help Montalvo “disappear.”
“This man basically offered me money and asked me to get rid of Nicole and that scared the (expletive) out of me,” the man told detectives, adding he looked at Angel Rivera “like he was crazy.”
The man told detectives he was still scared about talking about his interaction with Angel Rivera because he might find out about it.
Both Angel Rivera and Otero-Rivera are in the Osceola County Jail awaiting trial set to begin in September.
Victims of domestic violence can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline, available 24 hours a day, at 1-800-799-7233, or in Central Florida, the Harbor House 24-hour confidential crisis hotline at 407-886-2856.