Reinaldo J. Rivera, who has been charged with rape and murder, sits in Richmond County Superior Court during a pretrial hearing. Monday's hearing addressed the admissibility of tapes of Mr. Rivera's confessions to sheriff's department investigators. JOHNATHAN ERNST/STAFF

In court Monday, Mr. Rivera, 37, pleaded innocent to charges that include rape and murder. But his death penalty trials in the Superior Courts of Richmond and Columbia counties won't be so much about guilt as about how Mr. Rivera should be punished for the crimes.

''At this point we're focusing on a mitigation case,'' said attorney Peter Johnson, who is representing Mr. Rivera along with attorney Jacque Hawk.

Mr. Rivera faces charges in the Oct. 10 near fatal rape of an Augusta teen-ager; the Sept. 4 deadly attack of Army Sgt. Marni Glista, 21; and the June 22, 2000, rape and strangulation of Tabatha Bosdell, 18.

On Monday, in Richmond County Superior Court, those in the courthouse strained without much success to comprehend the tape-recording of Mr. Rivera's Oct. 20 statement to Richmond County sheriff's detectives. Recordings of two earlier statements detailed Mr. Rivera's accounts of how he killed Sgt. Glista and Ms. Bosdell, tried to kill another young Augusta woman, and how he killed two young women in Aiken - Tiffaney Wilson, 17, Dec. 4, 1999, and Melissa Dingess, 17, July 17, 1999.

The defense's major effort now is trying to find a way to convince juries in Richmond and Columbia counties to vote for a life sentence instead of death for Mr. Rivera, Mr. Johnson said.

''He didn't really leave us any room to work,'' Mr. Johnson said. Without Mr. Rivera's confessions, it's questionable whether detectives would have arrested him in Sgt. Glista's slaying, and investigators only learned of Ms. Bosdell's and Mrs. Dingess' deaths through Mr. Rivera's statements.

There's no question that Mr. Rivera's statements were freely and voluntarily given, Judge Albert M. Pickett repeated Monday. The question is whether Mr. Rivera's juries will be able to hear through the tape-recordings what the soft-spoken suspect said to the officers.

The investigators - Sgt. Wayne Bunton and Richard Rountree - could testify about Mr. Rivera's statements, but both sides would prefer the juries hear the tapes.

Reinaldo J. Rivera enters Judge Albert M. Pickett's courtroom for a pretrial hearing, where he would plead innocent to charges including rape and murder. JOHNATHAN ERNST/STAFF

Sgt. Bunton said the tape played Monday mainly concerned Mr. Rivera's answers to questions seeking to pin down time spans and additional details about how Mr. Rivera was able to contact the victims.

''I believe he was able to convince these women into making them do things they normally would not do,'' Sgt. Bunton said.

''He's an incredibly complex individual,'' Mr. Johnson said of his client. The court-appointed defense team has asked for funds to hire a forensic psychiatrist to examine Mr. Rivera. ''This is not your routine homicide case. Like I said, there is nothing routine about Ray Rivera.

''Now our focus is on what we can do to save his life,'' Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Rivera has not been scheduled for trial. A list of remaining pretrial issues and future hearing dates might be set later this month.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or shodson@augustachronicle.com.