Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf met with LebTown on Thursday morning, Jan. 16, and revealed new details about the unsolved murder of 13-year-old Jason Rivera on Feb. 15, 2022.
Read More: ‘Someone out there knows who killed this child’: new details in unsolved murder
Speaking in her office conference room on Jan. 16, Hess Graf told LebTown that minutes before Jason was gunned down, his uncle Jose Colon was involved in an apparent drug sale in his apartment, where Jason also lived.
“The uncle was dealing marijuana from the apartment,” Hess Graf said. “He told us he sent Jason out to his car to get his cigarettes. Two males showed up to buy drugs (from the uncle), while Jason’s in the parking lot. The first male goes in (to the apartment). He leaves as the second male is arriving. When Jason doesn’t come back to the apartment, that’s when he was found on the ground.
“We found vials of marijuana in the car where Jason was shot.”
Hess Graf also revealed that neighborhood surveillance video caught a brief glimpse of a “dark colored Honda Civic” traveling west on Vine Street, away from the apartment building parking lot where Jason just been killed.
“We got the video,” she said. “You’re not able to make out number of occupants of the vehicle. You’re not able to make out a license plate. All we know it’s a dark in color Honda Civic. So we have inconclusive video.”
Hess Graf said the video shows the Honda proceeding west on Vine Street, then turning north onto Worth Street, in the vicinity of George Strohm Plumbing at 480 Vine St., where it was least seen.
Hess Graf also said that neighbors hearing gunshots looked out their windows and got a glimpse of a vehicle moving away from the parking lot, but couldn’t provide more specific information.
Investigators have determined that Jason was killed by a 9mm handgun that turned up on May 4, 2023, in Prince Georges County, Maryland, when 20-year-old D’Andre Wint was pulled over in a traffic stop. Wint was himself killed in Montgomery County, Maryland, on May 26, 2024.
Although Lebanon County investigators were able to interview Wint before his death, Hess Graf said he denied knowing anything about Jason’s death or how the gun had gotten to Lebanon.
Wint’s untimely death isn’t the only frustration encountered by local investigators. Hess Graf said there was a second surveillance camera located on a nearby building, but the owner “had fire damage a week before and nobody ever replaced it.”
And so, “that’s where we are,” the district attorney said. She repeated her earlier statements that investigators don’t know if Jason was specifically targeted or simply mistaken for his uncle. Both were short in stature, and Hess Graf believes they could have been mistaken for each other.
Read More: Murder of 13-year-old in South Lebanon Township still unsolved 9 months later
Know anything that might help find Jason’s killer?
Hess Graf is turning to the public for help.
Anyone with information about Jason Rivera’s killing, the firearm used in the shooting, or a connection between Jason’s killing and D’Andre Wint is urged to call the Lebanon County Detective Bureau at 717-228-4403, South Lebanon police at 717-274-0481, or Lebanon County Crimestoppers at 717-270-9800.
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