A Morrisville man charged with killing his mother said he intends to plead guilty

A Morrisville man who admitted to killing his mother in April and leaving her body in a storage shed told a magisterial district judge Tuesday that he intends to plead guilty to her murder.

Sean Rivera, 29, has been charged with murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and related crimes in the April 8 death of his mother, Carol Clark.

Rivera drugged his mother by putting fentanyl in her iced tea, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest, and then drove her to a shed on Waln Street in Frankford and shot her five times with a Glock 9mm handgun that he had recently purchased.

After shooting her, Rivera used bolt cutters to remove locks that had been on the storage shed, placed his mother’s body inside, and replaced the lock with one he had purchased from Home Depot, the affidavit said. She was killed one day before her birthday.

Philadelphia Police found Clark, 72, in the shed behind the Northeast Community Center for Behavioral Health, investigators said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

» READ MORE: A Morrisville man killed his mother and dumped her body in a storage shed in Philly, DA says

Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Monica Furber on Tuesday described the plea offer between her office and lawyers representing Rivera to Magisterial District Judge Jan Vislosky during Rivera’s preliminary hearing.

If Rivera agrees to plead guilty, and accept the mandatory life sentence that comes with it, Furber said, prosecutors will not seek the death penalty.

“This situation would ensure that the victims wouldn’t have to go through a trial, and that the defendant would spend the rest of his life in prison,” Furber said. “It would protect the victims’ memories of their mother, and it would also protect the community.”

Rivera’s lawyer, Lisa Yvette Williams, declined to comment after Tuesday’s hearing.

Investigators first learned that Clark was missing from Rivera’s brother, Adam Clark-Valle, who lives in New York and had received a text message from his younger brother, one day after the killing, that simply read “911,” the affidavit said. When Clark-Valle called Rivera for more information, Rivera told him that their mother had died and urged him to drive home.

At the Morrisville home Rivera shared with their mother, he gave Clark-Valle conflicting stories, authorities said. First, he said Clark had gotten sick suddenly and died, then he changed the story and told his brother she had suffered a heart attack and had been admitted to a hospital in Frankford, according to the affidavit.

Unable to find any trace of his mother at area hospitals or wrestle any more information from his brother, Clark-Valle called the police.

He told police it was not like his mother to not contact him, especially on that day, which was her birthday, the affidavit said. He also said his mother has diabetes and mobility issues that prevent her from travelling far on her own. She stopped driving a year earlier after suffering a stroke.

Detectives responding to Clark-Valle’s call interviewed Rivera, who said his mother was gone when he woke up that morning. Her car keys were still in the home. But Rivera told the detectives he wasn’t sure whether his mother was OK, despite what he had initially told his brother.

While searching Clark’s home, detectives found two Glock 9mm handguns, both with receipts indicating that they had been purchased by Rivera, the affidavit said. They also found a receipt from Home Depot for two padlocks, only one of which was in the house.

Vislosky held Rivera for court on all charges. He is scheduled to be arraigned before a county judge on Oct. 27.