SACRAMENTO, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- A California man whose wife was one of the victims of D.C. sniper John Muhammad plans to be there when he is put to death.
Nelson Rivera told the Sacramento Bee he opposes the death penalty in most cases. But he believes Muhammad, who shot and killed 10 people in the Washington suburbs, deserves execution, scheduled for Nov. 10 in Virginia.
Rivera's wife, Lori, was shot dead as she cleaned out her mini-van at a gas station near their home in Silver Spring, Md. He is especially angry because the killer would have been able to see his wife taking out a car seat and would have known she had a young child.
"I just want to be there," he said. "It's like I'm closing the last chapter in a book."
Rivera, a native of Honduras who entered the United States illegally in 1995, became a citizen last week. He has a new wife, Kimberly, a new home in Sacramento and two more children.
While Rivera says he has been "blessed," he has not forgotten the loss of his first wife, the mother of his daughter Jocelin.
"It's like it happened yesterday," he said. "There's not a day I don't think about it. Lori, she was so young."
