Alyssa’s Story: What Javier Righetti Did to Get on Death Row

(Annie Black) – Assembly Bill 395 would abolish the death penalty in Nevada.

I’m opposed to the bill and have attempted to detail why.  But every time I’ve attempted to talk about this issue on the floor of the Assembly, I’ve been interrupted and blocked.

But it’s not just me.  Clearly one of the reasons the Democrats continue to refuse to open the Legislature to the public is to keep citizens such as Jennifer Otremba from testifying in person and make them squirm in their seats.

Ms. Otremba’s daughter was brutally murdered by one of the killers who are currently on death row in Nevada.  Here’s her story…

My name is Jennifer Otremba. I OPPOSE AB 395.

I’m here to tell you about my precious daughter Alyssa. She was my oldest of three girls, and my world was shattered when she was brutally murdered when she was 15 years old.

September 2, 2011 Alyssa was walking home from borrowing a textbook from a friend.  It was 6:38 pm when she texted me that she was walking home and her phone was going to die but she would be home within a half hour. Exactly 30 minutes later I texted her and there was no response. I called, and no answer.

I immediately started searching nearby parks and talking to anyone I saw to see if they had seen Alyssa. I called the police and had an officer at my home while others were patrolling and keeping a lookout for a girl fitting her description.

It was 24 hours later when her body was found approximately 300 feet behind our home in a vacant desert lot. As the details unfolded, I learned that Alyssa was within feet of the pedestrian gate at the end of our street when she was attacked by 19-year-old Javier Righetti.

He had left his home with a knife from his kitchen.  He spotted her walking and proceeded to follow her for a couple blocks before he attacked. He kidnapped her; dragging her out into the desert lot.

The uneven terrain and bushes made it so that no one could see them as he sexually assaulted her and then raped her.  He tortured her, stabbing her more than 80 times in her head, neck, body and then carved an “LV” for Las Vegas into her thigh because it made him feel “gangster.”

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, he returned hours later, and poured gasoline on her, and lit her body on fire. The coroner had to use dental records to identify her mutilated body.

During the autopsy, the tip of the knife was discovered and had broken off in her skull. Her remains were in such bad condition that we were advised not to see her because we shouldn’t remember her like that.

There are no words to adequately describe what this horrific loss has done to not only our family but the entire community. Every area of our lives were affected by the decision of this one cruel stranger. It has divided a family, created physical and mental health problems, caused unending nightmares, anxiety problems, and much, much more.

But in the midst of the ongoing struggles, we continued to cling to the belief that justice would prevail. We waited patiently for five and half years for Alyssa’s murderer to go to trial. There was justice to be served to the man that destroyed our lives.

March 16, 2017 he was found guilty and on March 21, 2017 a jury sentenced Javier Righetti to death for the gruesome murder of my daughter Alyssa. Only 8 days after the death sentence I appeared before this committee to testify on behalf of justice for my daughter.

I believe justice had finally prevailed. Although he had not killed before, at his own admission, he had sexually assaulted and raped before. Alyssa was not Javier’s first victim, but I thought she would be his last. However, in 2020, Javier stabbed another inmate putting that man on life support.

Alyssa did not deserve to be taken from this world in such a horrific way.  Her family did not deserve to have her ripped out of our lives. I cannot say the same for Javier Righetti.

He earned his punishment. He did not consider Alyssa’s life so why should his life be considered? Our family waited a long time for the justice system to work and Alyssa’s killer to be punished by what the law provides. Death is a fair sentence for what he chose to do that day.

Abolishing the death penalty would take justice away from future families of victims of the most atrocious crimes. To change the law and reduce his death sentence to life without the possibility of parole would be an insult to our system and to the jury that spent weeks of their lives sitting through the trial, listening to and having to see the horrific facts of Alyssa’s death.

Although Javier may never be executed for his crimes, he deserves to wake up every day not knowing when his time is coming. This man should not be afforded a life that my daughter Alyssa was not.

Amen.