A Morrisville man was sentenced to life in prison for killing his mother and dumping her body in a storage shed
Sean Rivera told a Bucks County Court judge that he didn't know why he drugged his mother, Carol Clark, with fentanyl and shot her five times. But he pleaded guilty to murder Thursday in her death.
Adam Clark-Valle stood before a Bucks County Court judge Thursday and asked him to keep two things in mind before sentencing his brother to life in prison for killing their mother in April 2023.
He emphasized the legacy that Carol Clark left behind as a public servant and advocate for children, one who became a surrogate mother to countless kids. And he said it had been devastating to lose his mother on her birthday, one she shared with his 16-year-old son.
“If I had one last wish, it would be for people to hear about that legacy, and not the last 24 hours of her life,” Clark-Valle said. “It should be impossible for anyone capable of doing something that sinister to be able to walk the streets again.”
Sean Rivera, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and related crimes for drugging Clark with fentanyl inside the home they shared in Morrisville before driving her to a secluded storage shed in Philadelphia and shooting her five times. He then left her body there, prosecutors said, securing the shed with a padlock he had recently purchased.
Judge Stephen Corr, in handing down Rivera’s life sentence, said the crimes he committed against his mother were unthinkable and vicious and asked him why he did what he did.
“I don’t know, sir,” Rivera said in reply.
Rivera’s attorney, Lisa Williams, said he is remorseful and chose to plead guilty to spare his family from a trial.
Still, Corr noted that Rivera seemed to plan his mother’s murder in advance, buying a gun and preparing the drugs he used to kill her.
“This one act was designed to inflict as much pain on as many people as it possibly could,” he said.
On April 8, 2023, Rivera diluted fentanyl into iced tea his mother had ordered as part of a Chinese takeout dinner the two shared, prosecutors said Thursday. He bought the narcotic specifically for that purpose, they said.
After dosing Clark with the drug, Rivera drove her to a shed behind a city-owned building on Waln Street in Frankford and shot her five times with a Glock 9mm handgun that he had recently purchased. Rivera used bolt cutters to remove a lock 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.
Investigators learned of Clark’s death from Clark-Valle, who had received a text message from Rivera the next day that said only “911.”
When Clark-Valle asked his younger brother for more details, he told him their mother had died from an illness and urged him to drive to Morrisville from his home in New York.
Rivera gave his brother conflicting stories when he arrived, first telling him their mother had suddenly died and, later, saying she had suffered a heart attack and was at a hospital in Frankford.
Confused and concerned, Clark-Valle contacted police.
After serving a warrant at Clark’s home in Morrisville, detectives found two Glock 9mm handguns with receipts indicating they had been purchased by Rivera, the affidavit said. They also found a receipt from Home Depot for bolt cutters and two padlocks, only one of which was in the house.
Eventually, police tracked Rivera’s movements to the shed in Frankford and found his mother’s body.