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Two charged in Montville murder
Cops: Nephew helped suspect hide homeless man's body

BY PEGGY WRIGHT
DAILY RECORD

A 32-year-old homeless man was charged Tuesday with beating a fellow day laborer to death last winter in Montville, and his nephew was accused of helping him wrap the body in plastic and hide it on an industrial tract off Chapin Road.

The skeletal remains of the victim -- identified for the first time Tuesday as 36-year-old Mexican immigrant Alfredo De Los Santos Francisco -- were found Oct. 12 in a wooded area of the industrial park in the Pine Brook section of Montville.

Francisco was last seen alive 10 months earlier, on Dec. 12, when he attended a celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Blessed Kateri Church in Sparta, said Montville Police Chief Richard Cook.

Two homeless day workers -- an uncle and his nephew, who police say are in this country illegally from Mexico -- were charged Tuesday in connection with Francisco's death, which is believed to have occurred on Dec. 12 or sometime during the winter. Authorities said the three lived in and around Montville for three or four years and came to the U.S. from neighboring villages in Mexico.

A man identified as Mario Nieto-Rivera, 32, was charged with murder, hindering apprehension and tampering with human remains. Nieto-Rivera, who also uses the name Juan Rosaadilla, quarreled with Francisco over a derogatory comment the victim supposedly made about his ex-wife and mother, Cook said.

Inside the vacant, former J.P. Western Wear store on Chapin Road, Nieto-Rivera allegedly punched, kicked and slammed the victim's head against a wall until he was unresponsive, and then dragged him down a flight of stairs, police said.

The nephew, identified as 20-year-old Marcos Jose Riveria, entered the building to find a blood trail, Francisco's body and his uncle, authorities said. Charged with hindering apprehension and tampering with human remains, the nephew -- who also uses the name Marco Nieto -- helped his uncle roll the body in a large piece of plastic. In darkness, they carried the corpse to a wooded area across the street from J.P. Western Wear, police said.

The pair were brought Tuesday before Superior Court Judge N. Peter Conforti in Morristown, who set bail on Mario Nieto-Rivera at $500,000 and at $75,000 for his nephew. The pair are being held in the Morris County jail, and Assistant Prosecutor Ralph Amirata said the Mexican Consulate would be notified of their arrests, as required by law.

The investigation

Montville police and prosecutor's office detectives zeroed in on the pair by talking to people who knew the trio as day laborers who drank and hung around together, lived for a while at the Sunset Motel in Pine Brook, and then squatted in vacant buildings after the motel shut down over the summer. One unidentified witness told police he frequently saw the relatives with Francisco, and that Mario Nieto-Rivera confided twice to him or her that he killed Francisco, according to a court affidavit prepared by Montville Detective Sgt. Andrew Caggiano.

The victim was, in part, identified by distinctive cosmetic dentistry he had undergone involving two silver dental crowns in the shape of overturned hearts that were placed on his front upper teeth. Police also learned that Francisco was hospitalized in August 2005 at St. Clare's Hospital in Denville after he was stabbed in the back near a fast food restaurant in Montville. No arrest was made in the assault, Cook said.

The uncle and nephew were served with the new criminal charges at the county jail, where Mario Nieto-Rivera has been lodged since Sept. 27 for failing to appear in Parsippany Municipal Court on criminal mischief and shoplifting charges. He also is being detained in the jail on a contempt of court charge related to public drinking and shoplifting in Montville, officials said.

The nephew was sent to the county jail on Oct. 22, in connection with a shoplifting charge in Parsippany, and on warrants for unpaid fines totaling $15,425 for municipal offenses in Montville, officials said.

Prosecutor's Office Detective Robert McNally and Montville Detective Christopher Keezer participated Monday in interviews of the two suspects at the jail, and obtained statements from both about their roles in the alleged homicide, police said.

Cook credited Montville officers, the prosecutor's office and the county sheriff's office with swiftly resolving the case.



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Peggy Wright can be reached at (973) 267-1142 or pwright@gannett.com.







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