La Habra Man Arrested in Woman’s Slaying

An Orange County man has been arrested in the drug-related slaying of a woman in exclusive Lake Success last April, Nassau County police said Thursday.

Claudio Felipe Rivera, 33, was arrested Wednesday at his La Habra apartment and arraigned later in an Orange County court on a warrant charging him with second-degree murder.

Nassau Homicide Squad Detective Sgt. Robert Edwards said Rivera refused to waive extradition on the murder charge.

Prosecutors allege that Rivera, also known as Jairo Perea, drove the victim, Margarita Tavera, 33, to a secluded area off Farm Lane on April 4, shot her in the head and left her body at the end of a driveway across from the Fresh Meadow Golf Club.

Edwards called the killing “drug related.” He declined to comment further on a motive for the slaying.

Tavera, who was living in College Point, Queens, at the time of her death, was identified through a photograph placed by police in a New York newspaper.

Police said the Queens Homicide Task Force and the Manhattan Police Narcotics Squad provided information that helped Nassau authorities track down Rivera, but Edwards refused to elaborate on their role.

According to Edwards, Rivera was being sought as an escapee from a California prison, where he was serving a five-year sentence for selling drugs.

Edwards added that Houston police also have an outstanding warrant for Rivera’s arrest in a 1979 murder there.

Police said legal proceedings have begun to have Rivera extradited to Nassau to face the murder charge.