NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court ." Although it is posted on the internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3. SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. A-5487-17T4 STATE OF NEW JERSEY, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. FELIX RIVERA, a/k/a FELIX RIVERA-PADILLA, Defendant-Appellant. _________________________ Submitted November 18, 2020 – Decided December 17, 2020 Before Judges Sumners and Geiger. On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Union County, Indictment No. 17-05-0325. Joseph E. Krakora, Public Defender, attorney for appellant (Andrew R. Burroughs, Designated Counsel, on the brief). Lyndsay V. Ruotolo, Acting Union County Prosecutor, attorney for respondent (Kelsey A. Ball, Special Deputy Attorney General/Acting Assistant Prosecutor, of counsel and on the brief). PER CURIAM Defendant Felix Rivera appeals from a February 14, 2017 Family Part decision1 granting the State's application to waive defendant, who was then a sixteen-year-old juvenile charged with first-degree murder, to adult court. (Da75-88). He also appeals from his May 11, 2018 sentence. We affirm. We derive the following facts from the record. The State's sole witness, Sergeant Johnny Ho of the Union County Prosecutor's Office, provided the following testimony at the waiver hearing. On April 21, 2015, sometime around 9:00 p.m., seventeen-year-old Oscar Martinez Alvarez was fatally shot with a nine-millimeter gun. A cell phone was recovered from the victim's body and subsequently searched pursuant to a warrant for information relating to the crime. The investigation revealed the homicide was gang-related and identified defendant (a/k/a Chaco), Juan Antonio Barraza (a/k/a Shaggy), and Juan Diego Delgado (a/k/a Pana) as the individuals involved in the homicide. The investigation further identified defendant as the shooter. Defendant emigrated to the United States from El Salvador in 2013. As part of his investigation, Sergeant Ho interviewed the following individuals associated with the street gang, the Mara Salvatrucha (commonly 1 The record does not include a corresponding order. Only the court's written opinion was provided. A-5487-17T4 2 known as MS-13): Oscar Antonio Porteo-Guzman, Delgado, Alex Saldona (a/k/a Puma), and Barraza, who is a high-ranking member of MS-13. Porteo-Guzman stated he knew the victim by the nickname "Moscow" and "believed that [the victim] was [a] MS-13 member . . . but may have been trying to switch to a different street gang." He also stated that on the day of the homicide, he received a phone call from Barraza who asked him to meet up with Barraza, Delgado, and defendant "to do something bad." Porteo-Guzman further stated that on the day after the homicide, he received a phone call from defendant who told him they (defendant, Barraza, and Delgado) "scored four goal[s]," which was code for "four shots or four bullets." Sergeant Ho testified Porteo - Guzman consented to a search of his cell phone; the search corroborated Porteo- Guzman's statements in that his cell phone contained Barraza, Delgado, and ...
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