A 63-year-old man will spend the next 30 years behind bars for stabbing and strangling his girlfriend just days after she told her granddaughter that she dreamt the man would kill her.
Nelson Rivera was sentenced on Friday, April 28, to spend 30 years in Florida State Prison for the murder of Elizabeth Crisanti.
According to court records, Crisanti’s body was found by Volusia County Sheriff’s Office deputies on September 22, 2021, after her sister requested that police conduct a wellness check when she did not pick up her grandchildren from school.
Deputies responded to 240 Orange Grove Drive in Ormond Beach a short time thereafter and, upon entering the home, they encountered blood and a shaving razor on the floor near the entrance to the bedroom.
In the bedroom, deputies found Rivera laying on a bed, covered in blood. Crisanti was found lying face up on the ground, next to the bed, with a knife protruding from her chest.
Crisanti, who had custody of her 11-year-old and 5-year-old grandchildren at the time, was pronounced deceased at the scene.
During interviews with family and friends, investigators determined that Crisanti had a “toxic relationship” with Rivera. Crisanti frequently advised her friends and family in texts and phone conversations that she feared for her life and that she thought Rivera would hurt her.
During one instance, Crisanti’s granddaughter told police that several weeks before she was killed, she told her that she had a dream in which Rivera had killed her.
Crisanti’s sister told authorities that her sister had been developing an “escape plan” with her two grandchildren in light of Rivera going through her telephone and making threats to her.
During a sworn interview with one of Crisanti’s friends from Connecticut, the friend told police that Crisanti told her “if anything were to happen” to her, it would be Rivera who was at fault.
An autopsy conducted on Crisanti’s body revealed that she was stabbed multiple times and strangled to death. The bedroom where she was found was filled with blood stains in various places, as well as a broken Rosary whose beads were scattered across the room. According to police, all of the evidence in the bedroom suggested that there was a struggle before Crisanti’s death.
During their investigation, detectives determined that no one else entered or exited the home and that Cristani and Rivera were the only occupants of the home at the time of her death.
Rivera