Death penalty trial is delayed

The Oct. 10 death penalty trial for Reinaldo Rivera has been postponed.

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Mr. Rivera, 39, has pleaded innocent in Superior Court in Richmond and Columbia counties to charges in two homicides and three sexual assaults. His trial date was canceled Friday because mental health expert reports have not been completed.

The trial might not be rescheduled until after the first of the year. Meanwhile, Mr. Rivera will remain in the Richmond County jail, where he has lived since his October 2000 arrest.

He was arrested based on information given by an Augusta teenager who was sexually assaulted and nearly killed in her home Oct. 10, 2000. Investigators said Mr. Rivera confessed to that attack and told detectives he was also responsible for the fatal attacks on Sgt. Marni Glista in Augusta and Tabitha L. Bosdell, whose remains were found in Columbia County.

Police say Mr. Rivera gave further statements to officers saying he also raped and killed two young women in Aiken County - Melissa Dingess, 17, and Tiffaney Wilson, also 17.

Ms. Dingess disappeared July 17, 1999. Ms. Wilson disappeared Dec. 4, 1999, and her body was found a few weeks later. Ms. Bosdell was last seen alive in June 1999. Sgt. Glista, 21, was found alive in her home but died Sept. 9, 2000.

Investigators reported finding the remains of Ms. Dingess and Ms. Bosdell because of Mr. Rivera's directions to their bodies.

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

--From the Saturday, September 6, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle