Man admits Morris wedding rings thefts

A former Dover resident faces 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to using an imitation handgun to rob two women of their wedding rings in supermarket parking lots and trying to rob a third woman, who authorities said fought back by shoving a shopping cart at the thief.

Christian G. Rivera, now 31, started to cry quietly during his guilty plea before state Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor in Morristown to three counts of robbery. Assistant  Morris County Prosecutor Stephen Bollenbach has recommended that Rivera be sentenced on Oct. 16 to 20 years, with 85 percent or 17 years  to be served before parole consideration.

Under questioning by defense lawyer Sharon Kean, Rivera admitted that he used an imitation handgun to put women in bodily fear while stealing their wedding rings on April 18, 2012, in Rockaway Township and on April 25, 2012, in Roxbury.

Rivera admitted committing a third robbery in Wharton on April 24, but he was not successful in getting the victim's ring. Pressed by the judge and Bollenbach for more details, Rivera said the gun was imitation -- "a little handgun."

The Wharton victim had told the Daily Record in 2012 that she resisted the robbery attempt by shoving and keeping a shopping cart between herself and the thief until he fled.

Though the state's recommendation is 20 years in prison, Kean is expected to ask that Rivera be sentenced to 10 years.  The Prosecutor's Office, at sentencing time, will dismiss nine other charges against Rivera, including possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, making terroristic threats, receiving stolen property and tampering with evidence.

The tampering offense alludes to a charge that Rivera, shortly before he was captured in Denville while fleeing police from the Roxbury heist in 2012, swallowed a stolen ring.  Authorities say he excreted it and then hid it in legal documents he wanted his girlfriend to retrieve from him at the Morris County Jail.  But alert corrections officers examined the documents and found the ring.

Rivera did not admit to the crime, but he also had been charged while  in custody with threatening a Morris County corrections officer and was transferred to the Mercer County correctional facility.

Authorities said  Rivera, who has served time in prison for aiding and abetting a kidnapping in Bergen County, first approached a woman in a supermarket parking lot in Rockaway Township on April 18 and forced her at gunpoint to give him her wedding ring.

On April 24, Rivera pointed a fake gun at a woman and demanded her rings outside the Wharton ShopRite. The woman refused and shoved a cart at him. 

   Rivera was apprehended in Denville on April 25 after he fled a robbery outside the ShopRite at the Roxbury Mall, where a woman had a gun pointed at her and had her engagement ring pried from her finger.

   Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@GannettNJ.com.