A 44-year old Vandalia man charged with the murder of a Vandalia teen in November 2025, pleaded guilty to two of the six counts he was charged with including murder and sexual criminal assault of a family member under the age of 18. Arnold Rivera appeared in Fayette County Court on Tuesday with Public Defender Lucas Mette and Fayette County State’s Attorney Brenda Mathis and Assistant State’s Attorney Jessica Carr-Martin in attendance for a hearing where a plea was expected. SA Mathis informed Judge Alan Lolie and the court that if the matter went to trial that she would call expert and law enforcement witnesses to testify as to Count 1 for Murder that Rivera intentionally caused the death of KT by using jumper cables to strangle the teen and on Count 3 for Criminal Sexual Assault that Rivera committed the sexual assault act just prior to committing the act of murder. Mathis stated per the proposed plea deal that the sentence for Count 1 would be 60 years in prison to be served at 100% with no credit for time served with mandatory supervised release of 3 years and the sentence for Count 3 would be 15 years to be served at 85% with credit for time served and 3 years to life mandatory supervised release. Mathis said court costs would be vacated as the funds would be uncollectable due to the sentence being a de facto life sentence. Judge Lolie questioned if Rivera had time to talk to his attorney and if he understood the proceedings and explained Rivera’s rights to him which Rivera stated he understood and when asked if he wished to plead guilty to each count, Rivera confirmed with yes answers. Judge Lolie then officially accepted the pleas of guilty and announced the sentence of 60 years on Count 1 to be served at 100% and 15 years on Count 3 to be served at 85% with 173 days for credit served with the sentences to be served consecutively which Lolie explained would have Rivera in jail for around 72 years. The remaining four counts were dismissed. Rivera was given his appeal rights and was removed from the courtroom after a very brief vocal outburst by a person attending the hearing.
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