Chris's Crime Forum

Waukegan man faces 3rd trial in 1992 murder of 11-year-old Holly Staker

Eight of the jurors who ultimately will have to decide whether the now 36-year-old Rivera committed the rape and murder were chosen Monday. Rivera was convicted of the slaying in 1993 and 1998 -- but both convictions were later tossed out.

Lake County Judge Christoper Starck, who is presiding over the third trial, ordered the new trial in 2006 after refined DNA testing showed Rivera couldn't have left semen found on the young girl's body after she was slain.

Prosecutors, though, say they still believe they can show the Waukegan man committed the 1992 attack.

Former inmate says Rivera pointed to himself as the killer
A man who was in the Lake County Jail with Juan Rivera testified Friday that Rivera hinted that he murdered 11-year-old Holly Staker.

However, Edward Martin said he did not tell police everything Rivera said to him because he was afraid of being labeled a snitch.

Rivera, 36, is on trial for the third time in Lake County Circuit Court for the Aug. 17, 1992 rape and murder of the Waukegan school girl.

He has twice been convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but new trials were ordered after both convictions.

About a month after the slaying, Rivera and Martin were housed in the same section of the jail.

Rivera was waiting to be sent to prison for violating his probation on a burglary conviction and Martin had recently been arrested for violating his own probation.

Martin, who was on probation for molesting an 11-year-old girl and lived directly across the street from the apartment where Holly was killed, said he was unpacking in his cell when Rivera first approached him.

He and Rivera had been close friends for more than a year, Martin said, and Rivera began talking about the killing almost immediately.

Martin said Rivera first told him about a suspicious man he saw at a party the night Holly was killed, a story Rivera would later admit was a lie, and then went into greater detail.

Martin said Rivera told him he was well acquainted with Holly, and used to walk her to the apartment where she would baby sit for two children.

Rivera told him he thought Holly was "fine" and "hot," Martin said, and he chastised Rivera for talking that way about a little girl.

Rivera also called Holly a "tease," used an angry expletive to describe her, Martin said, and then said something he found exceptionally chilling.

"He said she deserved everything she got, all 27 times," Martin said. "He kept making that point; he said all 27 times again and again."

An autopsy established that Holly had been stabbed 27 times and that fact had been widely reported in the aftermath of the killing.

Martin said Rivera went on to implicate himself in the slaying, but not directly.

"He said the police were so stupid that they were never going to figure it out," Martin said. "He said the guy is in jail and on his way to prison."

Rivera was transferred to the state prison system the day after Martin said the conversation took place.

About two weeks later, Martin told the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force about some of the conversation but not all of it. He said he only related the story about Rivera being at the party, and did not tell police he was well acquainted with Rivera.

Martin said he pretended that he did not know Rivera other than by a nickname "Rico," and told police Rico had been sent to prison.

He did not detail Rivera's other statements, Martin said, because he feared retaliation if it was discovered he had done so while he was still behind bars.

Under cross examination by defense attorney Thomas Sullivan, Martin denied he later hired an attorney in an effort to claim a reward after Rivera was arrested.

He also said he was questioned by police about his own possible involvement in Holly's death, but was able to prove he was in another state when the killing took place.

Testimony is expected to continue Monday.
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Staker was stabbed 27 times and violently raped the evening of Aug. 17, 1992. Rivera has twice been convicted of the crime, and has twice been granted a new trial. Most recently, Circuit Judge Christopher Starck ordered a new trial because DNA advancements ruled out Rivera as the source of semen found at the crime scene.

'Deserved everything she got'

WAUKEGAN -- Juan Rivera thought Holly Staker deserved to be killed, one of his former jail mates testified Friday.

A month after 11-year-old Staker was found murdered in a Waukegan apartment, Rivera allegedly told Edward Martin, a fellow inmate in the Lake County Jail, that she had it coming.

Martin and Rivera knew each other from the streets and spent a few days together in jail in September 1992. During a conversation just hours before Rivera was transferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections to serve a burglary sentence, Martin said that Rivera revealed "disturbing" information to him.

"He said (Holly) was 'a little tease and a little bitch and she had deserved everything she got -- all 27 times,'" Martin said in court.

Staker was stabbed 27 times and violently raped the evening of Aug. 17, 1992. Rivera has twice been convicted of the crime, and has twice been granted a new trial. Most recently, Circuit Judge Christopher Starck ordered a new trial because DNA advancements ruled out Rivera as the source of semen found at the crime scene.

Martin, who was also a suspect because he had a criminal history of sexually abusing a young girl, did not initially reveal his alleged conversation with Rivera to police. He first told authorities that Rivera told him that he saw a suspicious man coming in and out of a party on the night Staker was killed.

But on a later date, Martin claimed that Rivera told him police would never catch the real killer. Martin claimed in court that he didn't come forward with the whole story initially because he didn't want to get too involved. When he finally did, he said it was because it was the right thing to do. Martin was ruled out as a suspect because he was in Tennessee on the night of the murder.

"Police are so stupid. For all they know, the person is in jail," Martin recalled Rivera saying. "They're never going to figure out that the guy's in jail and on his way to prison."

Defense attorneys, in an attempt to discredit Martin's story, brought in evidence that Martin hired an attorney to help him collect a reward for pointing the finger at Rivera.


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there were so many different stories that he had changed..

WAUKEGAN -- Juan Rivera told two different investigators that he killed Holly Staker because she teased him about his lack of sexual prowess, both men testified in court Monday.

In his initial confession to police in 1992, Rivera said he unknowingly stabbed Staker because she attacked him with a knife, said former Waukegan police Officer Donald Meadie, who typed Rivera's confession. The following day he told Waukegan Sgt. Lou Tessmann that he initiated the attack.

As Rivera's murder trial entered a second week, Meadie and Tessmann took the witness stand and gave similar accounts as to how Rivera confessed to the August 1992 murder.

After changing his story numerous times, Rivera broke down, cried, and nodded his head "yes" when asked on Oct. 29, 1992, whether he was responsible for Staker's death, Meadie said.

During an interview at Lake County Major Crime Taskforce headquarters, Rivera allegedly told Meadie that he killed the 11-year-old after the two had consensual sex. In his final confession, given to Tessmann, Rivera said he had sex with Staker after stabbing her, Tessmann said.

The confessions, both of which were signed by Rivera, say that Rivera was in the 400 block of Hickory Street in the early evening of Aug. 17, 1992, when he saw Staker -- whom he knew from his sister -- outside an apartment where Staker was baby-sitting. Rivera was on his way to a friend's home in area after doing cocaine and smoking a marijuana joint at Rivera's home on May Street.

According to the confessions, Staker began talking to him and eventually invited him inside. Once in the apartment, Rivera, who was 19 at the time, told investigators that Staker attempted to seduce him and that he initially spurned her advances. Moments later, however, she tried again, and Rivera claims he gave in and they began kissing.

That's when the confessions begin to differ. Rivera allegedly told Meadie that the two began having sex and stopped only after a baby began crying. In the account to Tessmann, Rivera said he tried having sex, but he failed to perform.

While Rivera was attending to the baby, he told investigators that Staker came into the room and teased him about not performing. In a confession to Meadie, he claims Staker grabbed a knife because he wouldn't finish the job. In the account to Tessmann, Rivera said he got the knife on his own.

During a struggle, Rivera began hitting and stabbing Staker, and, in the account to Tessmann, he then had sex with her as she lay dying and bloodied on the bed.

"I don't know how many times I stabbed Holly, but it was more than two," says the confession Rivera signed.

He then washed the knife and his hands, broke the knife in two and ran home, where he washed himself and burned his clothes.

Rivera's defense attorneys on Monday questioned the validity of the confession to Meadie, because it was not recorded by video or audio. Meadie said that Rivera refused to be recorded, but defense attorney Thomas Sullivan questioned whether that was true, because Rivera was forthcoming with everything else investigators wanted him to do for several days.

Sullivan also questioned Meadie as to why he would allow Rivera to sign a confession after he had a nervous breakdown, and was treated by jail nurses. Meadie claimed he didn't know that Rivera had a nervous breakdown, because he was busy typing the confession.

Rivera has twice been convicted of the crime, and has twice been granted a new trial. Most recently, Circuit Judge Christopher Starck ordered a new trial because DNA advancements ruled out Rivera as the source of semen found at the crime scene.


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Now..To the DNA!

Questions about DNA in girl's murder case

DNA found in 11-year-old Holly Staker may have been there for days before her slaying in 1992, a prosecutor suggested today in the third trial of Juan Rivera for the rape and murder of the Waukegan girl.
An expert from California acknowledged it was "a possibility" that he was unable to develop a DNA profile from sperm found in Holly because it may have been there for more than four days. Later, questioned by the defense, Brian Wraxall, executive director of the Serological Research Institute, testified that while it was a possibility, "I think it's a leap."

The DNA does not match Rivera and is proof of his innocence, defense attorneys have said.

Assistant State's Atty. Michael Mermel also raised the possibility the DNA samples may have been contaminated. The first test in 1993 was inconclusive, Wraxall said. Rivera, 36 of Waukegan, was convicted twice before.
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Detective: Rivera acted strange after first confession


Juan Rivera began acting bizarrely shortly after he first admitted killing Holly Staker, a detective testified Thursday.

Rivera, 36, is on trial for the third time for the Aug. 17, 1992 rape and murder of the 11-year-old Waukegan baby sitter. He has twice been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, but new trials were ordered after each conviction.

Around 3 a.m. on Oct. 30, 1992, Rivera had just finished telling two detectives from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force how he had killed the girl, and those detectives went to prepare a typewritten account of what Rivera had said.

Detective James Held testified Thursday he was asked to keep an eye on Rivera, who was in an interview room at the Lake County sheriff's office, while the other officers were away.

Held said he observed Rivera through the one-way glass from an interview room next to the one Rivera was in. Rivera walked up to the glass on his side of the wall, Held said, and cupped his hands on the mirror and tried to look through it.

Held said Rivera then turned away from the mirror, stood in a corner of the room and began "tapping" his head against the wall.

"I watched him to this for about 20 or 30 seconds," Held said. "Then I walked over to the room he was in and asked him to stop doing that."

Rivera did not respond, Held said, but kept tapping his head against the wall in a light, rhythmic manner.

Held said he then went to get another officer and when they returned to the room, Rivera was crouched in the corner and was still tapping his head against the wall.

Other officers converged on the room, Held said, and together they laid Rivera down on the floor and handcuffed him.

"He had begun hyperventilating at the time and was still not responding to any of our verbal instructions," Held said. "We wanted to get his hands secure to prevent him from harming himself."

Rivera seemed to calm down after a few minutes, Held said, but officials decided to return him to the jail.

Rivera was brought to his feet, Held said, taken to the jail and placed in a padded observation cell near the booking desk.

Defense attorneys have characterized the episode as a "psychotic event," and claim it is proof Rivera was not competent to confess to the crime.

During his cross-examination of Held, defense attorney Thomas Sullivan attempted to pose a series of questions concerning police questioning of Rivera on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30 that led to his confession.

Sullivan asked Held if he was aware Rivera had a low IQ, was emotionally unstable and if Held was aware that some experts maintain questioning a suspect for more than four hours can prompt a false confession.

Circuit Judge Christopher Starck sustained all of Assistant State's Attorney Eric Kalata's objections to those questions and Held did not answer them.

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Holly Staker slaying: Ex-cop testifies Juan Rivera demonstrated stabbing
Confession recalled in '92 murder case of Holly Staker, 11
Juan Rivera used a ballpoint to demonstrate how he repeatedly stabbed Holly Staker, 11, when he confessed to the crime 17 years ago, a former state police officer testified Friday at Rivera's third trial for the rape and murder.

The demonstration on Oct. 30, 1992, came as Rivera made his second confession in the same day, said Michael Maley, then a member of the Lake County Major Crime Task Force.

Another officer involved in the questioning, Waukegan Police Sgt. Lou Tessmann, told Rivera that Rivera must like children because he did not harm the two youngsters Holly was baby-sitting the evening of the slaying, Maley testified.

"You're right. I didn't. I do like children," Rivera said, according to Maley.



Rivera said he "ingested" a half-gram of cocaine and smoked marijuana before walking from his Waukegan home to the near north neighborhood where Holly was baby-sitting on the evening of Aug. 17, 1992, Maley said.

Rivera told the officers he recognized Holly on the street and that he knew her through his younger sister, Maley said.

Rivera said Holly "made fun of him" when he was unable to have sex with her, Maley testified. "He said it made him mad," he said.

Rivera told police he got a knife from the kitchen to "scare" the girl but when she stood up on the bed and started "kicking and punching him" he stabbed her," Maley said.

Rivera's attorneys have attacked both confessions, saying Rivera had been interrogated for hours without an attorney.


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Staker friend testifies Holly heard noises
former friend of Holly Staker recalls the young girl phoning her on the night she was murdered to tell her she was scared because she heard noises outside the apartment where she was babysitting.

Marilyn Albarran-Guadarrama testified Tuesday that Staker told her on the phone that she wanted her to come over, because she didn't know what the noises were. Albarran-Guadarrama said she didn't go, because her father wouldn't let her. Also, she initially thought Stalker was making up the story, because she was just looking for company.
Albarran-Guadarrama said she now believes Staker was in trouble that night.

Yesterday, Kenneth Moses, a crime scene investigator from San Francisco, who said he has investigated 17,000 crime scenes and several dozen staged crime scenes, said the door did not appear to have been damaged for the purpose of throwing off investigators. Whoever damaged the door was likely trying to break in, Moses said.

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Jury deliberates in rape, murder case of girl

May 5, 2009 (WLS) -- In a third re-trial, a jury is deliberating the fate of a man accused of raping and murdering 11-year-old Holly Staker 17 years ago.
The killing happened in a Waukegan home in 1992.
Holly Staker was babysitting there when she was killed. Juan Rivera was 19 at the time. He confessed to the killing and has already been convicted twice. But new DNA evidence taken from the victim is not his.
The prosecution says the confession is enough to convict.
The defense contends the confession was coerced and that the DNA evidence means someone else committed the crime.

we will see...

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Rivera jury ends deliberations for the day

After deliberating seven hours today, the jury hearing the murder case against Juan Rivera was sent home to get some rest.

Lake County Judge Christopher Starck received a note from the jurors this afternoon saying they wanted some fresh air and the chance to stretch their legs. Starck said he thought it would be better to send them home after their second day of deliberations.

Rivera is on trial for the third time on charges he fatally stabbed and raped 11-year-old Holly Staker in a Waukegan apartment where she was baby sitting in Aug. 1992.

Before leaving the courthouse today, family members of Rivera said they were anxious and stressed, but declined to comment further until after the verdict.

The trial began in the Waukegan courthouse on April 13.
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