Lawrence man sentenced to life for murdering boyfriend over breakup
A 51-year-old Lawrence man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after he was convicted of stabbing his boyfriend to death, because he did not want their relationship to end, officials said.
According to the Essex County District Attorney’s office, Miguel Rivera stabbed his boyfriend, 39-year-old Omar Mendez, amid an argument following their breakup.
Prosecutors said the two men had broken up several weeks earlier, but had continued to live together in their Haverhill Street home in Lawrence. The argument started after Mendez received a phone call, which officials said Rivera believed to be another man.
As they argued, Mendez began packing a bag to leave. But according to the DA’s office, Rivera then stabbed Mendez 13 times and then tried to take his own life.
Rivera’s defense lawyer, John Morris, said Thursday in a brief interview that the relationship between Rivera and Mendez, who had been together for 22 years, did not end weeks earlier as prosecutors asserted, but on the day of their fateful argument.
Morris said the defense had argued the stabbing was a “heat of passion” case in an attempt to reduce the murder charge to manslaughter.
According to Morris, Mendez’s sister-in-law was one of the two eye-witnesses to the murder and had attempted to pull Rivera off her brother-in-law as he was stabbed.
“It’s just a really sad case,” Morris said.
Following a brief trial, Rivera was found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder February 15, 2015 in Lawrence Superior Court.
Judge Richard Welch imposed the mandatory sentence for the conviction Thursday after the court held Mendez’s sister-in-law and niece (who was also at the apartment during the stabbing) gave “emotional” victim impact statements, according to the DA’s office.
“Mr. Mendez was, by all accounts, a loving and generous man who did not deserve such a brutal end to his life,” Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a statement.
As mandated on all first-degree murder convictions, there will be an automatic appeal by the defense.
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