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Guilty Plea In Pasco Stabbing Death

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By TODD LESKANIC | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 19, 2009

DADE CITY - A man who killed a 72-year-old sex offender in August 2006 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder today in Pasco Circuit Court.

Luis Angel Rivera, 26, was sentenced to 25 years in prison as part of the deal negotiated with prosecutors. Assistant State Attorney Manny Garcia said Rivera stabbed William Medley in the head and neck during a robbery attempt at Medley's home in Lacoochee.

Medley's body was found by a friend who went by Medley's house after not hearing from him for several days. Police arrested Rivera on a first-degree murder charge at his Tampa home Sept. 3, 2006.

The charge was dropped to second-degree murder as part of Rivera's deal with the state. He would have faced a life sentence had he gone to trial and been convicted of first-degree murder. Prosecutors had not indicated they planned to seek the death penalty.

Investigators began focusing on Rivera as a suspect after one of his friends told them he had helped Rivera hide a silver Dodge Dakota shortly after the slaying. The friend told detectives he agreed to meet Rivera near Rivera's apartment.

The friend said it was during the meeting that Rivera showed him the Dakota he said belonged to a man he had beaten. The truck was parked at a gas station on Busch Boulevard. The friend also said Rivera had blood on his jeans, according to court documents.

Rivera later said he didn't want to move the truck because he knew deputies were watching it, and he also spoke of possibly burning it.

Hillsborough County sheriff's investigators eventually confirmed the truck belonged to Medley.

At the time he died, Medley was serving 14 years of probation for convictions on eight counts of lewd and lascivious assault on a child younger than 16. Pasco investigators have said his status as a sex offender had nothing to do with the killing.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

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