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Witnesses: Orange recliner was fatal blow in Killeen homicide
BELTON — Several witnesses testified on the first day of a murder trial that a large, orange reclining chair thrown from a second-story balcony likely was the fatal blow that
Witnesses: Orange recliner was fatal blow in Killeen homicide
- By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula | Herald correspondent
- Apr 23, 2024
Raymond Antonio Rivera
BELTON — Several witnesses testified on the first day of a murder trial that a large, orange reclining chair thrown from a second-story balcony likely was the fatal blow that killed a 50-year-old woman in 2020. The victim, Nilsa Maria Arce of Killeen, allegedly had been thrown off her balcony to the courtyard below by her boyfriend who is on trial this week facing a murder charge.
Raymond Antonio Rivera, 39, initially was booked into the Bell County Jail on June 25, 2020, the same day as the alleged incident. He was determined to be incompetent to stand trial, was restored to competency at a state hospital and then re-booked into jail on March 12, 2021.
Rivera remained in custody on Tuesday with a bond of $500,000. He was indicted on Oct. 7, 2020, and he has pleaded not guilty.
Despite multiple pieces of substantial furniture landing on her body, Arce survived the initial incident and was placed on a ventilator in critical condition. She suffered a broken clavicle, broken neck, multiple fractured ribs and a brain bleed, according to the affidavit.
Arce died June 27, 2020, at the hospital. Two family members of the victim were in the courtroom on Tuesday for the first day of testimony during the trial.
On Monday, a jury of five men and nine women, including two alternate jurors, were empaneled to hear the case in the 27th Judicial District Court with Judge John Gauntt presiding.
JUNE 25, 2020
On Tuesday morning, the jury heard from a resident of the Henderson Garden Apartments in the 800 block of Henderson Street in Killeen where the incident occurred and from a nearby business owner who chased and detained Rivera immediately after the alleged incident.It was just after the noon hour and Roxanne Rodriguez was outside, seeing her boyfriend off to work.
“I heard a woman and a man arguing and then I heard, ‘Aaah!’ and I heard Miss Nilsa hit the ground,” said Roxanne Rodriguez, who lived at the apartments at that time. “I looked at my partner and I said, ‘Did he just throw her over the balcony?’”
It took Rodriguez about 10 steps to get to where the woman was on the ground.
“She was breathing very heavily,” Rodriguez recalled. “Then I looked up and saw that Mr. Raymond was looking over the balcony and aiming objects at her face. I recall an orange chair landed on her face and then I didn’t hear any more sounds (from the victim).”
Rodriguez’s partner called police while she ran to get help from a friend she knew as “Blanco,” who owns an auto collision repair shop across the street from the apartment complex.
“By the time we got back, so much stuff had been thrown that it looked like a pile of trash on top of her,” Rodriguez said, during her testimony on Tuesday morning. She said that only the victim’s feet could be discerned from the pile of furniture and other household items.
Before hearing from Rodriguez, the jury heard from “Blanco,” an Army veteran whose real name is Aden Puente Santiago. He told the jury about his friend, Roxanne, frantically running into his shop.
“It took me less than a minute to get there,” Santiago said. “When I arrived, I looked up and saw a person throwing items off the balcony toward a body on the ground and I knew that was the person who needed help. I immediately moved the orange chair and other items off her so I could give first aid. ... As I approached Miss Nilsa, I asked if she was OK and didn’t get a response. I yelled at people to call 911.”
Meanwhile, he said that the man above continued to throw items toward the woman on the ground.
“I yelled at him and told him to stop, that I was coming to get him,” Santiago said. “Mr. Raymond jumped off the balcony and ran and I started running after him. One of my employees picked me up in my car and we continued following him for about two blocks. When he got to an open field, I jumped out. We held him down until KPD arrived.”
When asked by the state’s prosecutor to describe the orange chair, Santiago estimated it weighed 40-50 pounds and was “sturdy.”
Also during his testimony, Santiago said that a couch had landed on Arce’s torso area.
During cross-examination, Rivera’s defense attorney, John Galligan, asked how well the witnesses knew Rivera, whom they both identified in court as the man who was throwing items. Neither witness had identified either the victim or defendant by name in their written statements to police, but they repeatedly referred to them by name during testimony.
“I didn’t know them by name but knew them in passing as customers,” Santiago said. “We weren’t friends. The police asked what happened and not how I knew them.”
Galligan also tried to raise doubt about what Rodriguez actually witnessed.
GASLIGHTING: Anyone telling you that you did not see what you actually saw is just gaslighting.
“You didn’t see (the victim) lifted up or pushed or thrown, and she was a heavyset woman, correct?” Galligan asked. Rodriguez said that she heard arguing in Spanish, followed by the sounds she described, and then the aftermath.
Testimony is expected to continue in the trial on Wednesday.