A 10-year-old Connecticut boy heart-wrenchingly revealed that he didn’t have enough time with his late father, who was stabbed to death before they could go trick-or-treating on Halloween five years earlier.
Fernando “Chino” Rivera’s son, Niko, bravely delivered the powerful victim impact statement before his father’s killer, Terrence Johnson, was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Tuesday.
“I didn’t get enough time [with his dad] … My dad deserved to stay. My dad was taken from me too early,” Niko said in a video played in Superior Court in Milford, according to the Hartford Courant.
Fernando “Chino” Rivera holds his son Niko in an undated photo. Rivera was fatally attacked in West Haven, Conn., in 2020. Facebook/FernandoRiveraNiko had been waiting for his father to come home so they could celebrate Halloween together in 2020, but Rivera never returned.
The 35-year-old was at the corner of Elm Street and Washington Avenue in West Haven, Conn., when Johnson, then 18, stabbed him from behind.
Rivera, who was engaged to Niko’s mother, Lindsee Baez, was seriously injured in the attack and died from a neck injury at Yale New Haven Hospital the next day, according to his obituary.
Niko, who was only 5, was told his father died of a “boo-boo.”
Johnson was arrested and charged with murder, according to court records viewed by The Post.
Fernando “Chino” Rivera died of neck injuries at Yale New Haven Hospital on Nov. 1, 2020. North Haven Funeral Home
Terrance Johnson pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 38 years in prison.
He fleshed out a plea deal with prosecutors to reduce his sentence to between 30 and 45 years, Baez told the outlet.
The boy recommended to the court that Johnson deserved to be held in prison for a century, despite the killer getting under four decades.
“I wish he would go away and stay in jail for 100 years,” Niko said. “I want (his dad) to know I miss him so much.”
Loved ones said Rivera’s greatest joy was “being a father and spending time with his son.”
Baez was hopeful her fiancé’s killer would spend the rest of his life in jail “in a perfect world,” but conceded that the sentencing was “a semblance of justice,” she told the court.
“You stole a life, you stole dreams, and you stole love, and no sentence can ever undo the damage you caused,” she furiously told Johnson.
“At the end of my day, my son doesn’t have a dad,” Baez said.
Rivera and his fiancée, Lindsee Baez, were together for 17 years before his murder. Facebook/FernandoRiveraRivera, a 6-foot, 350-pound man known for his tattoos, was remembered as a gentle soul who became a stay-at-home dad after his son’s birth, affectionately called “Papa Bear” in the maternity ward, Baez said.
“He was truly my best friend,” she said, according to the outlet.
“We grew up together, from our teenage years into adulthood,” Baez recalled of her 17-year relationship with Rivera. “The road was bumpy along the way, but we never gave up on each other. We chose our family every single day, and that choice made him so happy.”
