Roberto Rivas is just 25 years old, but he's already amassed an extensive criminal record. And now, Fairfax County police have charged the Chantilly man with nine new offenses.
They include possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, assaulting a police officer and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. He's currently being held in the Adult Detention Center while awaiting three, upcoming court dates.
ACCORDING TO jail records, Rivas' legal troubles began with auto theft, in July 1998, at age 18. In October of that year, he was sentenced in Circuit Court for two counts of auto theft. He received one year and six months in prison — with one year and three months suspended — for each count, running concurrently.
Just a year later, he committed the same offense and, in December 1999, he was sentenced to 12 months in jail for another auto theft, plus six months for reckless driving to elude. And in January 2000, the one year and three months previously suspended was reinstated.
But that's not all. In September 2001, Rivas was sentenced to another year and three months for reckless driving to elude. Then in January 2002, he was indicted for being a habitual offender and sentenced, that same month, to yet another year and three months behind bars.
Rivas served his time, but he's again in hot water with the law. Police Det. D.L. Pierce explained one of the charges against him in a June 3 affidavit for a warrant to look for a handgun and ammunition in Rivas' trailer at 14513 Iberia Circle in the Chantilly Meadows community.
Pierce noted that, on June 2, police charged Rivas with possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He wrote that, while interviewing Rivas the next day, Rivas reportedly told him there was a semi-automatic handgun and ammunition inside his trailer.
In checking the records of the National Crime Information Center, the detective discovered that Rivas is a "four-time, convicted felon." Therefore, he wrote, if Rivas did, indeed, have a gun and ammunition in his home, he had them in violation of the law. Police executed the warrant, June 3, and items seized included a Phoenix Arms Raven .25-caliber gun and ammunition.
That same date, Rivas was charged with: Possession of a scheduled drug, possession of a weapon while in possession of narcotics, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, assaulting a police officer, eluding police, resisting arrest and being a habitual offender. On June 6, police also charged him with failing to appear in court for a previous traffic charge. He has July 7, 20 and 25 court dates.