Probation Officer Justine Matherly told deputies she’d gone to 90 Dirksen Drive to check on her probationer, David Rivera, on the evening of May 16 when she noticed blood on Rivera’s head, according to the report.
Rivera, 25, claimed a "cleansing ritual" was taking place.
The animal remains were found in a recycling bin on Toms Road by a bicyclist the morning after the ritual, according to the report. The incident remains under investigation.
In April 2016, he was in an eight-hour standoff with deputies after he hanged his mother’s dog then threatened to hang himself.
Events began after Rivera, 24, was arguing with his mother at her home at 90 Dirksen Drive over his unemployment, according to the sheriff's report.
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That's when he dragged a 5-year-old Chihuahua named Benji out to the tree in his mother's backyard and dropped it from a limb with a metal chain around its neck, the report states, hanging it to death.
But then events took another turn and David, a former Deltona High School student, climbed 30 feet into the oak tree, tied a metal cable around his neck, swung the other end around a limb and threatened to jump, deputies said.
Too bad he didn't.
The 49-year-old mother of five sons immediately called 9-1-1.
"I have an emergency in my house. My son is crazy. He killed one of the dogs," cried Belica Rivera in the call as she tried to get emergency services to come out to her home, just across the street from Gemini Springs Dog Park.
Belica Rivera said she was urging her son to make money to help support two children he fathered — a son who lives with his mom in Indiana and a daughter who lives with her mother in Deltona.
Gender: Male
Race: Hispanic
Birthdate: 10/19/1991
Address: 90 Dirksen Dr, DeBary, Florida 32713
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Arrest Age: 25
Date:05/25/2017
Time: 2:10 PM
Arresting Agency: Volusia County Sheriff's Office
Charges
#1 FELONY CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
STATUTE: 828.12(2)(a)
(CB Emerald Coast - May 25, 2017)
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