A Florida man has been sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder of his father-in-law, 33-year-old Anderson Guerra Rivera, in front of a 15-year-old boy. Ruben Pioquinto, 32, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Guerra Rivera, which occurred in January 2022.
Pioquinto’s actions, described as cold-blooded and terrifying, left the boy to witness the horrific crime and later forced him to dispose of the victim’s body.
The Murder and Aftermath
On January 19, 2022, Guerra Rivera’s family reported him missing and feared he had been murdered. The 15-year-old boy, who was the victim’s stepson, told police that Pioquinto had killed Guerra Rivera the previous night. According to the boy’s testimony, he had been in the backseat of Pioquinto’s car when the murder occurred.
The sequence of events began with Pioquinto driving with Guerra Rivera in the passenger seat and the boy in the back. At one point, Pioquinto fired shots into the air, and later pointed a gun at a man outside the car, a person the boy didn’t know.
The situation escalated when Pioquinto pointed the gun at Guerra Rivera’s head and asked, “Are you afraid of dying?” When Guerra Rivera replied no, Pioquinto shot him point-blank in the head.
A Cold-Blooded Killing and Further Abuse
After shooting Guerra Rivera, Pioquinto drove away with the victim’s body in the front seat, accompanied by the terrified 15-year-old boy. Pioquinto took the body to a bridge on U.S.
Highway 19 in Palmetto, where he ordered the boy to remove Guerra Rivera’s body from the truck and leave it by the side of the road. Pioquinto threatened to kill the boy if he told anyone what had happened.
The abuse continued during the drive home, where Pioquinto slapped the boy and tried to bite him. Once home, he forced the boy to lie down on the couch while he kept an eye on him.
The boy, traumatized and scared, fell asleep, and the next morning, after being questioned by a family member about his stepfather, he finally revealed the horrifying events of the night before.
Legal Proceedings and Justice
Pioquinto was arrested, and after a four-day trial in November, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder. On Friday, he was sentenced to life in prison for the cold-blooded killing. Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells described the murder as a “point-blank range, cold-blooded killing,” highlighting the disturbing nature of the crime.
The case underscores the devastating impact of violence on both victims and witnesses, especially when a child is subjected to such trauma. Pioquinto’s life sentence ensures that he will never again be able to harm anyone. However, the psychological scars left on the 15-year-old boy, who was forced to witness the murder and participate in disposing of the body, will undoubtedly last a lifetime.
