Roberto Perez Rivera was found guilty as charged of two counts of Second Degree Murder with a Firearm, First Degree Burglary While Armed (Structure), and Petit Theft. The jury returned the verdict this afternoon, following a trial that began Monday in Lee County.
Assistant State Attorney Hamid Hunter, of the State Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit, prosecuted the case.
The defendant murdered a man and a woman in a home in Lehigh Acres. He shot them to death, while their 6-month-old child was also in the home.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to the home on October 27, 2019, following a 911 call from a relative of the female, who had stopped by the house and found both victims deceased. The female victim was found dead on the floor of the master bedroom with head trauma. The male victim was found dead in the master closet of that room. The toddler was alive and found behind a dresser.
The evidence presented at trial showed the defendant had recently returned to Florida from his current home in Baltimore, Maryland. He rented a car when he arrived and after the murders, attempted to trade it in to the rental car company, for a new car, claiming the one he had was dirty. The rental car company told him to clean the car himself.
He then washed the car at an area car wash with family members as well as laundered his clothes at an area laundromat. He left Southwest Florida soon after the murders and was located in Las Vegas. He was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Regional Task Force.
Sentencing has been scheduled for December 8, 2025.
Samantha Syoen – State Attorney’s Office Communications Director