Capital murder trial underway for man accused of raping, killing Arbor View freshman in 2011

Prosecutors painted a picture of a predator during opening statements Thursday in the capital murder trial of Javier Righetti, who is accused of the 2011 rape and killing of 15-year-old Alyssa Otremba.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Giancarlo Pesci used a multimedia presentation to show jurors pictures of Alyssa and her northwest valley home. He included diagrams and maps of the route she walked that day to get a school assignment from a friend and to show where she was stalked and intercepted.

The Arbor View High School freshman was less than 300 yards from home when she was raped, mutilated and killed.

Pesci told jurors that Righetti, then 19, later had a friend drive him to get gasoline and went back to burn Alyssa’s body. Pesci said it didn’t stop crime scene analysts from matching sperm found on the girl with Righetti’s DNA.

“Even though he burned her, even though he tried to hide what he did to this little girl, he cannot outrun it,” Pesci told jurors. “Alyssa was made to pay with her life, because he was bored, he was horny and he wanted to kill somebody. Now it’s time for Mr. Righetti to pay.”

Pesci showed jurors a picture of where Alyssa’s cellphone was found in Righetti’s home and a trash bag with bloodstained clothes and a knife that were hidden in an attic space.

He showed jurors an X-ray of Alyssa’s brain, where Pesci said the tip of a knife was lodged. The girl was stabbed more than 80 times.

Deputy Public Defender Christy Craig told jurors that they may not hear much from the defense while the state presents its case over the next week, but she urged them to remember their pledge to be impartial.

“You promised to listen to both sides,” Craig said. “You promised to take that emotional impact for what happened to Alyssa, put that in a box, and put it away while you’re here sitting as jurors.”

The trial before District Judge Michelle Leavitt will resume Friday morning at the Regional Justice Center.

Prosecutors will begin to call witnesses to testify, including the friend Alyssa was going to see the day she died and a man who drove Righetti to buy gasoline and dropped him off near Alyssa’s home later that night.

A year ago, Righetti pleaded guilty to 10 counts, including murder with a deadly weapon, first-degree kidnapping and sexual assault with a child in Alyssa’s death.

His plea to nine counts stands, but the Nevada Supreme Court last month upheld a lower court decision rejecting a plea on the murder charge.

On that count, the plea lacked an admission that the killing was premeditated, which prosecutors said should have been included. Such an admission allows prosecutors to ask a jury to consider more factors regarding the severity of the crime when weighing Righetti’s sentence.

Jurors are expected to decide on the murder count without knowing about his plea.

If sent to Nevada’s death row, Righetti would be the youngest man in one of the solitary cells in upstate Ely, isolated 23 hours every day.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the day the trial would resume.