Navy Murderer

Okay that last one was so much fun, I think I will bring it down a little, with the story of a Navy chief petty officer who was so tired of his wife gambling, beating their kids and then divorcing him.

This was not a model family. Philip Charles Rivers, who is now 50, was convicted in 2007, at the age of 47, of first-degree murder in the January 2005 death of his wife, Edna.

The body of Edna Rivers was found on a hillside off Cajon Pass in San Bernardino with a plastic shopping bag over her head. She had been there long enough to be chewed on by animals.

She had been beaten so savagely that part of her scalp had come off.

Rivers, a career Navy man, had problems with his wife because of his long deployments, and the care of the house and their two daughters, as well as his parents, who lived with them in their Temecula home.

Prosecutors contended that Rivers was enraged with his wife, a frequent gambler at the Pechanga Indian Casino, who was going to divorce him and take the house and custody of his kids.

The defense contended that Edna Rivers was probably killed by someone she met at Pechanga and then taken to the Cajon Pass and dumped there.

But that did not explain the presence of the blood in her bedroom, that Rivers tried unsuccessfully to completely remove.

Based on the elder daughter's statement that she saw her father cleaning her mother's carpet, police investigated the house and found blood traces in the newly painted ceiling and walls, and the bedroom carpet pad drenched in blood, Ronce said.

For a time, Rivers' elderly father was charged with being an accessory, because surveillance photos showed him helping his son rent a carpet cleaner and get a new mattress.

Rivers was aboard his Navy ship when he found out on Dec. 31, 2004, that his wife was filing a restraining order against his parents, which would keep them away from the couple's two daughters, aged 12 and 16 at the time.

The older girl was deaf.

Rivers returned home on Jan. 1, 2005 and was cooking breakfast for the girls when he and his wife got into an argument about a cell phone charger and she called police to have him arrested.

When Philip Charles Rivers returned home from jail with his parents, he convicted his daughters to come back to their grandparents' Hemet home with him, said Ronce.

On the morning of Jan. 2 the girls woke up to find their father gone. They never saw their mother again.

Because the murder was premeditated and committed with malice aforethought, Rivers was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, which means he cannot be considered for parole until the 25-year stretch is completed.

Because there were no special circumstances - such as lying-in-wait or committing murder for financial gain or during attempted or completed rape, robbery or burglary, Rivers was never eligible for life without parole.

However, given the harshness of life behind bars, the chances of Rivers getting out of prison alive, or at the very least in good health, are pretty slim.

Philip, you should have just fought her in court. Now your kids have no parents and the knowledge that their mother was done in by their father.

Rivers did tell the judge that if she intended to put him in prison, she might as well "upgrade" his sentence and give him death because it would be easier on the family.

"I'm not afraid to die, ma'am," Rivers said.

You have killed the life you and your children could have had together Philip.

What can you say for yourself now?