A convicted sex offender who was serving time at New York City’s Rikers Island jail after beating his estranged girlfriend is believed to have taken his revenge by strangling the terrified woman less than 24 hours after being released from prison.
According to the New York Post, Jerome Rivers, 52, called Gia Pender on Thursday asking if he could stay with her. That call terrified Pender, 49, who had an order of protection against Rivers, and sent her running to her neighbor.
“Jerome is coming over,” Pender said to her neighbor. “If anything happens to me, give this to my mother.”
Rivers, of the city’s Brooklyn borough, was jailed on Rikers for two months after he violated the terms of his release as a sex offender by attacking Pender. Rivers had been convicted and did time in 2013 on third-degree sex abuse charges, the Post notes.
According to the Queens, N.Y., district attorney, Rivers got to Pender’s home and then called the cops at about 6 a.m. the next day, saying that he woke up to a “thump” and found Pender on the bedroom floor.
Of course, that story would make anyone suspicious, especially given the couple’s history.
Rivers attempted to tell cops that he didn’t “have a reason to kill her” but then later made a point to tell them that she had stolen his checks, “disrespected his mother and had him locked up on trumped-up domestic-abuse charges.”
Officials ruled that Pender had been strangled and Rivers was arraigned over the weekend on charges of second-degree murder and criminal contempt. He is currently being held without bail.
If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.
Read more at the New York Post.
